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

To: Maurice Winn who wrote (32412)	2/14/2011 8:58:57 PM
From: Jacques Chitte	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

That sounds workable to me. I agree that electricity should be priced in such a way that providers make money - not obscene profits, but enough that subsidies are unnecessary, and the occasional demand spike coincident with a fuel price spike is survivable, followed by rate rises to restore the utility's buying power. I don't know if I gave that impression, but my idea of the social contract between utility and small customer doesn't have anything to do with nationwide price controls backstopped by subsidies. I reacted to what I saw as am implication of uncontrolled short-term pricing: In the event of the sort of supply/demand mismatch that causes blackouts, a consumer could be drawing electricity whose cost is much higher than he'd anticipate. That price-up would have hit without notice, leading to a nasty surprise when the bill came. I questioned the fairness of that. That seems to no longer be an issue. And I can always visit our local Chinese Chamber of Commerce (Wal-mart) to buy that thick sweater...