Re: [asa] Carbon Offsets for the Elite (or, How the Wealthy Adapt to Warming)

*That's 16,200 kWh/month of green power paid for vs. 15,917 kWh used. [Side
note: looking at premiums being charged by the TVA ($4/150 kWh block or
$35/month for the average Nashville consumer) this seems to be well within
the regular Joe's capability. You make it sound like it's extraordinarily
expensive. Alternative energy is not rocket science either in its difficulty
or its price.]*
**
This is a nice program, but according to their website they only have
capacity to power 54,000 homes annually -- a pittance. If the demand
significantly increases, without a regulatory price cap, the price will
skyrocket. With a regulatory price cap, there will be no money to invest in
the infrastructure needed to meet increasing demand (assuming there are even
enough wind and solar sites available). Either the market will have to be
significantly deregulated, or taxes will have to be raised to pay for
infrastructure. Either way, if widely adopted the product is likely to be
priced beyond the reasonable means of ordinary people.

There is no free lunch. The problem can only be addressed through
taxation. The only just approach to taxation is one that accounts for
differing price elasticities of demand among different segments of the
consumer popultation. This means wealthy energy guzzlers with heated indoor
pools should be taxed until it really, really hurts.

On 3/3/07, Rich Blinne <rich.blinne@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Not really. For example, when the AP contacted the utility for a follow up
> they found out the think tank had never contacted them. I did some research
> and here is what I found. Basically, the Gores buy premium, green
> electricity AND offsets. And George is absolutely right about ad hominem
> arguments.
>
> In addition to what Dave mentioned, Gore participates in Green Power
> Switch <http://www.tva.com/greenpowerswitch/green_mainfaq.htm> to the tune
> of $432/month premium for green power. That's 16,200 kWh/month of green
> power paid for vs. 15,917 kWh used. [Side note: looking at premiums being
> charged by the TVA ($4/150 kWh block or $35/month for the average Nashville
> consumer) this seems to be well within the regular Joe's capability. You
> make it sound like it's extraordinarily expensive. Alternative energy is not
> rocket science either in its difficulty or its price.] The total usage
> number for the Gore mansion is from a follow-up by the AP contacting the
> utility rather than the think tank's numbers because a spokesman for the
> power company said the utility never got a request from the policy center
> and never gave it any information. You say this doesn't effectively produce
> alternative energy. But, what does the TVA say?
>
>
>
> *How does green power benefit the environment?*
>
> The environmental effects of traditional energy sources like coal, natural
> gas, oil, and nuclear power can be significant. Although no source of energy
> is impact-free, renewable resources create less waste and pollution. In
> fact, an investment of an additional $8 per month on your power bill buys
> enough Green Power Switch to equal the environmental benefits of planting an
> acre of trees in the Tennessee Valley.
>
> *How much electricity does Green Power Switch produce?*
>
> TVA has the capacity to provide as much as 97 million kilowatt-hours of
> green power annually. Physical laws determine where electricity is
> ultimately used, so power from these sources will go into TVA's electric
> system as part of the Valley's total power mix, rather than to individual
> homes or businesses. When the green power resources aren't operating — for
> instance, when wind speeds are too low to generate energy — TVA's other
> resources will continue to supply reliable electricity.
>
> On Mar 3, 2007, at 6:12 PM, David Opderbeck wrote:
>
> Where's the ad hominem? Nobody's calling him names. The facts are the
> facts.
>
> On 3/3/07, PvM <pvm.pandas@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > I find it somewhat disturbing that when Al Gore receives an award for
> > his groundbreaking work, suddenly these ad hominem attacks appear out
> > of nowhere to try to undermine Al Gore's work. Swift-boating all over
> > again and since there is not much argument against the science of
> > global warming, the obvious course of action seems to be to attack the
> > messenger.
> >
> > Thus right wing news papers and other outlets are quick to accuse Gore
> > of being a hypocrite.
> >
> > I guess when faced with the inconvenient truth, some are quick to
> > attack, at all cost.
> >
> > May God have Mercy on them, for they do not know better
> >
> > To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
> > "unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.
> >
>
>
>
>

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Received on Sat Mar 3 22:48:22 2007