2 posts tagged “power”

Ahhh…electric cars.  Clean.  Safe.   Eco-friendly.  These babies don’t produce the noxious gasses that their gasoline driven brethren create.   Global warming will abate as the CO₂ levels drop with the ever decreasing population of gasoline-driven automobiles.  The consumer will not be beholden to the gas company and their ever-fluctuating prices.   National security will improve as we reduce the dependence our nation has on foreign oil imports.  It will simply make the Earth a better place.  Right?

As Detroit and Japan push forward on the release of new electric plug-in vehicles, we need to reexamine our condemnation of the auto industry as the chief party responsible for global warming.  Plug-in vehicles sound great to most Americans because we simply plug them in and “POOF” – no more combustion engine pollution.   The problem with electric cars is the myth that they are the solution to our problems.

Americans and the rest of the world face a bigger problem than our vehicles and that is our energy industry.  Beyond the obvious stranglehold that oil producing nations have over the world we have big problems.  Oil is the BIGGEST energy producer on the planet (not to mention a primary source for plastics).  In the US, nearly 40% of ALL energy produced in the country is created by oil and most of that energy produced is done by vehicles. 

So what happens when we take all of the power producing vehicles offline and put the burden on our aging power grid?   What happens we have to nearly double the capacity of our aging grid?  We have to build more power plants.  

New power plants will probably result in new coal plants and an increase in the ever-growing demand for coal.  Currently, 51% of our electricity comes from coal and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon.  People seem to be on a “clean coal” kick to include top Democrats like Obama.  Unfortunately, there is no such thing as “clean coal”.  No matter how much you scrub the gasses or trap them in underground storage facilities, there is still a host of environmental issues involved like the destruction of mountains, rivers and streams through mountaintop removal mining techniques.

Sadly, renewable energy sources are expensive to install (although the prices are dropping) and the profits are minimal compared to those the energy industry is used to seeing.  That means they aren’t truly motivated to implement the cleaner energy sources.  Also, the large scale national grids that are plagued by transmission losses and health risks make the sale of energy more profitable; this eliminates their interest in more sustainable, secure and eco-friendly microgrids.

We have attacked our environmental problems in reverse.   Rather than addressing the need to double the capacity of electric power production FIRST, we have pushed for the production of vehicles that will drain an already overtaxed system.  This will most assuredly result in haphazard regulations and lenient rules that will allow the power industry to expand its production capabilities with cheap, dirty energy.  

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Recently the little sleepy little Michigan town of Bay City made national news.  It wasn't because its infamous daughter, Madonna, had broken the rules or done something outrageous.   It was for the freezing death of a 93-year-old WWII veteran.

Sadly, the man's power was turned off for non-payment of his utility bill.  On first glance, people screamed for the blood of power company.  Users commented on newspapers websites calling the electric companies "murderers" and other vicious attacks like this one:

Posted by john31600000 on 01/27/09 at 9:35AM

This FOCKEN city manager & the head of the utility should be arrested for murder! Someone should kidnap them and set them in a snow bank. This is the worst picture of greed that I have ever seen. Let a person die because of a $1000 unpaid bill. You bunch of FOCKEN killers. If I were his son/daughter or whatever you could be assured I would find a way to "do away" with these greedy FOCKERS. A*&HOLE KILLERS. It's not the neighbors responsibility to (check on) the neighbors. YOU A&^HOLE for even saying that. Yeah it's the neighbors right to put a HOT ONE in your FOCKEN ear A&%HOLE. IT"S CALLED MURDER, 1st DEGREE MURDER and it's your fault you fat pig greedy bastard.

People screamed for the blood of the power companies but failed to find out the true facts of the case.   Yes, the power company limited power consumption to the man's home.   Yes, he froze to death.   Yes, its a horrible situation - but it was ENTIRELY PREVENTABLE.

Marvin Schur was NOT some poor victim.   He was not unable to pay his bill - he simply failed to send in the payment for SEVERAL months.  He had STACKS of money sitting in his home - they were sitting next to the bills.  He had over a half-million dollars saved that he has left to the Bay City Medical Center.   So HE HAD THE MONEY TO PAY!!!

Marvin Schur lived alone but he had family who never bothered to check up on him.  He also had neighbors that never checked up on him.  Where were these people to make sure that good old Marvin was paying his bills?  Why weren't they checking on dear old Dad/Grandpa/uncle?  Why are people screaming for the blood of utility executives yet feeling bad for a family that obviously didn't provide the care their he needed????  They knew enough about the man to know that he had damned nearly a half-million dollars in bank but they didn't know enough to know that he hadn't paid his bills in months.

Now there are rumors that the man had alzheimers.  Again I ask - where was the family?  Let me tell you my grandparents have health problems and we check on them constantly.  If there was ever an issue that I thought they have alzheimers disease - I would be over there several times a day.  I would NEVER expect a utility company to do my job.   This goes for my granparents, my parents, my aunts and my uncles.  It goes for EVERYONE.

This is not the case of a poor senior that couldn't pay their bill because they had no money.  This is not the case of Executives gone wild in their power and randomly hurting people.   This is not the case of the evil corporation hurting a defenseless consumer.

This is a case of a family that failed their father and uncle.  They need to accept responsibility and stop shifting the blame onto a company who was not responsible for caring for a man.  This society is really going to hell when we expect a corporation to care for a man more than his own family does.