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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (32323)	2/13/2011 9:46:08 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

Nature is red in tooth and claw, but electricity prices have nought to do with nature. They are pure artifice. Electricity to household customers in the USA is billed monthly, with the providers using actuarial-style math to provide a stable price for the billing period. The local energy company is a monopoly. For big customers, like factories or sports arenas, I can see a pay-as-you-go approach being more practical. For this it would make sense to me to give the big customers access to the larger wholesale providers. Let'm compete for the customer. But household electricity was built from the ground up to a different, more "socialist" model. With the assumption of a monopoly comes an obligation to the customers to provide advance notice of price fluctuations. Gasoline pricing is different and more volatile. Two factors make this palatable to me: You purchase a fill-up and then monitor your own usage if you pay attention to the gas gauge. Then when you need another tank of pure dino goodness, you can shop around. Stations compete. Electricity is hard to adapt to that model. I can imagine instituting prepaid utility accounts, but then the utility provider will be obligated to provide the kilowatt hours contracted at the customer's max rate on demand, until the next account refill and contract revision opportunity. I have zero sympathy for utilities who get caught out by a demand spike or a supply bottleneck. Electricity is less a free market and more like insurance - the price reflects extensive calculations by the provider regarding mean usage, predicted peak usage, and "reasonable" excursions from the mean. Insurance is one weird racket. in California you can purchase earthquake insurance - it is expensive, and the deductibles strain credence. I would be very curious to see how an earthquake insurance provider will fare after a Big One, when suddenly many thousands of accounts demand a payout. Nonetheless I would expect an earthquake insurer to make good on all liabilities in a timely manner. (I hope that earthquake insurers are themselves insured. Turtles all the way down.) In a monopolistic environment, the liability comes entirely back to the provider of electricity, and suddenly adopting a free-market model is cheating. >No doubt you are cruel, heartless and don't care about other people, so when they die, you would write them off glibly with "Well, it's bad luck but these things happen. My condolences to the bereaved relatives and friends."< BwahahaaHAAAAhaha<cough!> <wheeeeeez>