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You just proved other posters points. Gas prices rose due to supply and demand. People got the message and started buying less gas guzzlers and started conserving more. That's the way the system in this country and set up to work.
It is not set up to work by government artifically inflating prices to pass their social agendas and "make" people switch by pricing them to the gills, in order to seem like they are making a difference for the environment. If the market says it's time to switch energy sources then it will be time. By the governement trying to artifically make it the right time, they will only hurt the people and themselves in the long run.
The problem is when the costs of energy bills is passed on to us, we can only do so much to conserve. I do all I can already to decrease my energy consumption (CPL light bulbs, adjust thermostat to be lower when I'm not at home or sleep, turn off lights and close doors in rooms I'm not using, etc), but when the bills increase, the one thing I can't do is change the utility company I use. When I drive my vehicle, I can gas up at any gas station I pass that has what I consider reasonable gas and save a few dollars that way. Once I've gotten as conservative as I can with my utility bills, I don't have the choice of moving to a more reasonable company and my bills will increase, no matter what.
The problem is when the costs of energy bills is passed on to us, we can only do so much to conserve. I do all I can already to decrease my energy consumption (CPL light bulbs, adjust thermostat to be lower when I'm not at home or sleep, turn off lights and close doors in rooms I'm not using, etc), but when the bills increase, the one thing I can't do is change the utility company I use. When I drive my vehicle, I can gas up at any gas station I pass that has what I consider reasonable gas and save a few dollars that way. Once I've gotten as conservative as I can with my utility bills, I don't have the choice of moving to a more reasonable company and my bills will increase, no matter what.
Good post, Sena, and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I tried to rep you but have to "share the love" first.
Hubby and I carpool to cut back on auto fuel costs, we look for best price for gas, and we cut back on unnecessary trips.
We already conserve as much as possible on our home energy and resource consumption, so I don't know what else we could do to cut back...
I guess Hubby and I can start showering together...
My oh my! If my power bill doubled my spendable income would be be approaching 1/2! How would I possibly buy that new GM car, that new Home, those new clothes and shoes, the HD 52" TV, the 'Red Dot' made Blue-Ray DVD Player, the next everything included cell-I-C-U phone, and the list goes on and on......
I certainly would try to use my energy more efficiently and frugally. That would be about the quickest and easiest things I could do. Other than that it would be looking at replacing appliances and special night meters to reduce cost.
After the above measures I would head to the library and obtain a book about life in the US of A pre 1800's and disconnect all electric to the home. Try that for several months and write a booked named, 'Electric-Less Home for Dummies', and hopefully earn enough to have my home trun by electric once again!
Where there's a 'Watt' there a 'Charge'...NO pun intended!
Oh good. I'm glad we have the all knowing "market" to make all our decisions for us.
When do you think the market will let us know it's time to switch?
Will it be before or after 20%of Bangledesh is flooded by a four foot increase in sea level?
Will it be before or after Iran produces a nuclear weapon?
OMG! First off what does Iran producing a nuclear weapon have to do with this? Secondly, please tell me how using nuclear power or fossil fuels is going to increase the sea level in bangledesh by 4 feet?
SHOW me some facts! Don't preach Al Gore conspericy theory. For all we know the world could be heating up do to natural processes like it has since its inception. I've never understood why people want people to suffer (ie. raising energy prices) to try and push their agenda of making this world a "green" world, even though there is no evidence to support man made global warming. Let's bankrupt this region, state, and county further to push social agendas.
If they double our electric rates to $0.20/kwh I'm moving. Seriously. That's beyond ridiculous. I'd be paying more in electricity costs than I pay in all my other bills combined. Who cares if I can afford it, our bills are up 15% from last year and energy costs are 1/3 of what they were. We will effectively have the highest cost per kwh in the entire United States. My winter bills were $160/month and I kept our house at 65F.
Doing this will just force people to completely turn off their heat and AC.
And I don't think it's necessarily a bad idea. Until we start paying the true cost of these resources,
Really? Progress Energy made almost a billion dollars last year, how are our electricity costs not reflected in the "true cost" that we are paying now?
I don't care where you are from (unless it's California) paying $200-$300 a month for electricity is absurd. So many things will increase. This hurts everyone, especially the small businesses in this area. All of our tech intensive infrastructure thrives on cheap energy.
If they double our electric rates to $0.20/kwh I'm moving. Seriously. That's beyond ridiculous. I'd be paying more in electricity costs than I pay in all my other bills combined. Who cares if I can afford it, our bills are up 15% from last year and energy costs are 1/3 of what they were. We will effectively have the highest cost per kwh in the entire United States. My winter bills were $160/month and I kept our house at 65F.
Doing this will just force people to completely turn off their heat and AC.
Yep, yep, yep. Some people can afford a bill that doubles but most of us can't. If I could, I wouldn't want to. My winter bills were $130/month and I kept the thermostat on 74F. I don't even want to think about what my summer bills will look like if I keep my current thermostat setting of 78F for cooling.
You're right, Hawaii alone would be more, I should have said "mainland", but whatever.
Stop and think about how much electricity they use in Hawaii, no A/C, no heat, solar hot water. Now think about how much we use. Our rates would be double the US national average. That is NOT GOOD for business.
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