Green electricity finds few customers in… Massachusetts! The local utility offers “green” electricity but few customers have signed up – 0.76% to be precise. Whyzzat? Maybe ’cause it costs 15-30% more than not-green energy. But the enviro activists think it’s because the utility hasn’t spent enough money to publicize the program. It’s never that their ideas are lousy, it’s always the messaging.
This post was last modified on January 31, 2012
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Makes about as much sense as Carbon Credits.
Ok, I have a question. You put the little green electrons into the grid in a different spot than you put in the dirty ones, I can understand that. But how do you keep them from getting mixed up on the way to the purchaser? How do you train the little green ones to turn off the grid at the proper home, so that the dummy that paid the extra 30% is assured that only green electrons enter his home? Hmmmmmmm?
Since electrons are fungible (i.e. as an economic good, they're identical) if generator A puts 10,000 kwh onto the grid and generator B puts 50,000 in, it doesn't matter whose customers get which electrons as long as each get what they paid for. So there's no "dirty" or "clean" electrons, there's just electrons.
It's the same situation if you buy any commodity, say crude oil. The US customer isn't allowed to buy oil from Iran but China can. But it doesn't matter if the US customer takes a barrel of oil out of one end of the pipeline that the Iranian producer put in the other. Assuming the oil is the same grade, the barrels are all the same. The Chinese will pay Iran for whatever they took and the US customer will pay his non-Iranian supplier for the oil he took.
So we come to the silly part: In the utility customer's case, he is paying the "clean" generator 30% more to put essentially the same electrons on the grid as the "dirty" generator. There's no difference. It's like if you went to buy a Hershey bar and rejected one for $1 and went across the street to buy the same bar for $1.30 because the shopkeeper there was better looking. You basically threw 30% down the drain for nothing, for some cosmetic intangible that had no effect on the damn Hershey bar.
And in point of fact, one of the reasons the "clean" electrons cost 30% more is that the "clean" generator has to have a backup source of power because the damn wind doesn't always blow enough to produce all the electrons his customers require. There are stories about this happening in the UK. The utilities have backup fossil fuel generators to keep the lights on when the wind dies down or the wind farm has to be shut down for some reason. So you may pay 30% more for "clean" electrons but you may get "dirty" ones anyway.
But it makes the guy who paid 30% more FEEL so good that he's helping to combat some problem that a bunch of moonbats imagine exists. Cool, huh?
Well, you guys beat me to it. I was going to mention that there is no way that they can send "green" electric to someone and have them only get the "green" electric. It's a scam.
thanks for that boa.
The problem is not that Gaia-loving Progressives won't buy the expensive green power, but that the unwashed mass of uppity peasants won't buy it. Another mandate is in order here.
lol obama's always up for another man-date.
Ohhhh, stop it. You're having way too much fun here.
Yes, that's the ticket. Spend more money to prove this is all a SCAM. People don't buy anything that has to do with GREEN other than veggies because it's a failure. Who in thier right mind wants to pay more for green energy if it's going to cost them more money? Nobody I know. SCAM someone else, would you?
“We wouldn’t want to speculate why participation hasn’t been more robust,’’ Durand said (spokesman for the electric company - - - Oh shit, sorry, spokesPERSON).
Well hells bells, I have a pair and I'll speculate, it costs too much!! Libtards are famous for spending other people's money but not their own (see Algore's charitable contributions on his income tax returns).
Look at this comment from the Boston Globe!
Jan 31, 2012 5:07:44 PM
"Is it really that big of a deal to pay a bit more for electricity? Electricity is cheap, it's a bill I hardly even think about."
Must be a Kennedy. The liquor bill is the one they really think about.
In our area, if you choose to support West Texas Wind farms, your cost is as much as 40% above your regular bill. In a state where AC costs run inthe hundreds of dollars (to maintain about a 78 degree home) that cost isn't tenable. A few wealthy folks have done it, but the rank and file have trouble just paying the base bill.