Screwed again by our own gov't - energy bill repeals Public Utility Holdin

[FloridaPat]

Act. First I heard of this. Looks like legalized Enron. Subsccribers get the whole article.

http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/010306_end_grid_summary.shtml



"With the eagerness and drive of a baseball player on steroids, the largest financial powerhouses in the nation have been gobbling up publicly owned utilities since George W. Bush signed the new energy bill last fall. It is not just that ownership of these life-essential services is being concentrated in a few rich and unregulated hands — it is the identities of the owners that should make worry about what’s coming. If the writing on this wall got any clearer, you’d need to buy a box of popcorn and sit down for the horror show.

Best get a blanket and some long johns first.

Since the passage of America’s most recent energy bill on August 8th, many public utilities have been acquired by some of the wealthiest people on the planet. With the loss of public regulation that came with the repeal of the Public Utility Company Holding Act as part of that measure, these “cash cows,” to which tens of millions of people make monthly payments, are being converted into liquid giants that can be used to acquire other utility companies, or to trade ever-diminishing energy resources for profit. There is no rationing by government yet, only the rationing of the “free markets.” That’s only until the wheels come off and Peak Oil and Gas trigger uprisings and “civil unrest” (I absolutely detest that term – the word is “riot,” and it is not solved by a quick second or third mortgage). Only then will government step in, and then only to try and prop up the façade of a sustainable paradigm of infinite growth.

Instead of maintaining the grid for as long as possible, these amalgamating giants will now accelerate its demise. What is about to happen is the living embodiment of a statement made by a Dutch economist at a Paris Peak Oil conference in the spring of 2003: “It may not be profitable to slow decline.”

No more will utilities invest ratepayers’ money in extra capacity for the 20-year drought, the 50-year heat wave or the 100-year cold snap. Instead, every ounce of extra capacity will be sold off, under-maintained, or discontinued to maximize cash on hand for the next buyout or LBO. Ratepayer money will be used for the benefit of shareholders, not ratepayers. When it comes time to decide whether to make a handsome profit or keep people warm, there won’t even be a debate. These privately owned giants will be able to arbitrage energy to the highest bidder. They will be able to buy other, smaller entities just as the major oil companies have been doing for decades, adding the smaller companies’ reserves and net profits onto their price/earnings (P/E) ratios."

[OneBlueSky]

1. kicked and recommended . . . n/t

.

[pushycat]

2. Missed this important fact in the energy bill. Deregulation is

coming and it won't be pretty. If anyone remembers what Enron did to CA they may see something similar coming to their town soon. yikes

Too bad our Congress hates America...

[FloridaPat]

3. Don't forget Argentina and several other S. American countries.

The people had the choice of pay the utility bills or eat. And guess who was doing the Enron sales pitch in the 80's - our wonderful current president. What a joke. The biggest enemy of the American people is their own government.

[JohnyCanuck]

4. More signs of peak oil's approach? (fromthewilderness.com)

it might not be as far off as you think

In his seminal work on The Collapse of Complex Societies, Joseph Tainter argued that social complexity (which includes infrastructure, political economy, physical plant, etc.) yields diminishing returns as a society declines. After a few convulsive revivals have elapsed, the people find themselves running to stand still. When complex means of appropriating energy become prohibitively expensive or impractical, they return to simpler means. Soon the complex methods become prestigious and exotic. We are now just beginning to leave the period in which it’s common practice for even the working class to throw a switch and enjoy heating and electricity from a power plant tens of miles away, mitigated by thousands of yards of well-maintained transmission cable, driven by the burning of cheap natural gas piped from Uzbekistan to the coast, liquefied at super-low temperatures, shipped in amazingly expensive LNG tankers, received in even more expensive (and well-guarded) LNG ports, and distributed through a vast domestic pipeline network to be burned as gas at the plant. When the society can’t manage all that, people leave the house and start looking for wood. And as Mike Kane has found, they’re already out there. –JAH

Wood Scavenging in the Suburbs

By
Michael Kane

<snip>

With 423 acres, the preserve is one of the largest in the County, and is home to over 100 species of plants and animals. The population of all the bordering towns totals at least 100,000 people. Scavenging for fallen branches is not illegal so long as it goes no further than that. Cutting living tree limbs is not allowed – but imagine what might happen to this preserve when fuel shortages and a shattered economy become our daily reality.

Previously my neighbor was bringing in a wood supply from Eastern Long Island by van, but he has recently determined that it was not an efficient enough system to continue this year. He is left with all of the necessary gadgets – including a $2,000 hydraulic wood splitter – but no wood. The easiest solution for an overworked family that wants to trim their heating bill is to scavenge, since the preserve is so close.

What is remarkable is why my neighbors are inclined to scavenge. This past summer their entire family went on a European vacation that cost more than $20,000. The savings they hope to obtain by burning firewood will allow them to burn more jet fuel. Something is terribly wrong here. This is, in part, why FTW has such a pessimistic view of current events as they unfold.

Continued at:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/members/010306_wood_scaveging.shtml

[sybylla]

5. Makes me glad I'm a member of an electric co-op

Though they do buy some of their electricity from the grid, they generate most if it themselves.

Sounds like this is going to be a big problem for just about everyone. Perhaps it's time to think about getting off the grid now.

[stickdog]

6. kick

[No Exit]

7. Never forget:

The great majority of the time that mankind has lived on this planet, it has lived without using oil pumped from the ground.

We did it before. We can do it again.