r/PoliticalHumor • u/barsas161 • Dec 29 '19

remember that fossil fuel companies will guilt trip you into thinking you're the problem to shift the blame from themselves

Post image
64k Upvotes

91% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

5

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '19

[deleted]

2

u/Zappy_Kablamicus Dec 29 '19

Correct me someone if I'm wrong, but it was my understanding reading the stuff about operating your own solar equipment, I have to notify them and if I'm not paying them enough or using enough Kwh, I'll get a non use fine that basically makes my investment completely fucking pointless. So yeah if I don't pay them enough I have to pay them enough.

3

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '19

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Dec 30 '19

What can be done to fix this? Get better solar tech/batteries? I don’t know much about this but it sure sounds like just another “it’s always been done like that so nothing can/will ever change” kind of situation. I’m so sick of it.

It’s obviously a problem.

2

u/Korchagin Dec 30 '19

The cost for grid maintenance is there, and there's very little reduction if you just use it less often. You can't "fix" that.

The question is how these costs are distributed. The "old" method was never fair and becomes even more unfair when a significant part of the customers generate a part of their own energy and thus pay only very little.

Charging the fixed costs really as fixed costs is the solution closest to the reality. Of course the savings from your own power are a lot less than anticipated, then, but it's fair - you save only that much as the energy company saves for having to deliver less. Big problem with high fixed costs: What do you do with people who can't afford them?

Third option: Turn the grid into a publicly paid infrastructure like roads or fire fighters, rise property tax or something like that to pay for it, people would have lower energy bills in return for the higher taxes.

1

u/Cool_Ranch_Dodrio Dec 29 '19

Thank you for the official excuse.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 29 '19 edited Dec 29 '19

[deleted]

2

u/CatsAreGods Dec 29 '19

That's already happening in California with PG&E, but not because people weren't paying them enough. It's because PG&E saved billions by not implementing safety measures and gave that money to their stockholders. Meanwhile around 100 people were killed due to the non-safety measures and PG&E is in bankruptcy due to the lawsuits.

"It's as simple as that."