Sunday, January 06, 2008
From each according to his abilities
To each according to what the unelected employees of the public utilities decide
Isn’t that what Marx wrote?
Well, it’s what happens in the modern Nanny State here in California.
A new revision to Title 24 is in the works for 2008[2] and it includes a number of improvements and enhancements that are largely good sense items and should be non-controversial. For example a new swimming pool will probably need larger diameter pipes between the pool, the filter and the pump than was former practice. This will reduce the fluid friction losses that your pump must overcome and hence reduce the pump’s consumption of electricity, albeit at a minor increase in first cost for the larger pipes and fittings. Another good idea is a requirement for lighter colored shingles, the “Cool Roof Initiative.” That is intended to reduce heat loss over cold winter nights by emission and heat gain on summer days by absorption. My neighbor and I both recently discovered that it is difficult to get roofers to NOT use dark colored shingles for some reason. Having a little state muscle behind us will help, especially for renters.
What should be controversial in the proposed revisions to Title 24 is the requirement for what is called a “programmable communicating thermostat” or PCT. Every new home and every change to existing homes’ central heating and air conditioning systems will required to be fitted with a PCT beginning next year following the issuance of the revision. Each PCT will be fitted with a “non-removable “ FM receiver that will allow the power authorities to increase your air conditioning temperature setpoint or decrease your heater temperature setpoint to any value they chose. During “price events” those changes are limited to +/- four degrees F and you would be able to manually override the changes. During “emergency events” the new setpoints can be whatever the power authority desires and you would not be able to alter them.
In other words, the temperature of your home will no longer be yours to control. Your desires and needs can and will be overridden by the state of California through its public and private utility organizations. All this is for the common good, of course.
What the fuck are they thinking? Instead of allowing the construction of new generator plants, they are going to cut back on the supply by removing the economic incentive for energy companies to come up with the excess (by increased prices charged to the heavier consumers). That will drive prices even higher for those periods when the consumption levels are nowhere near peak demand. (It’s a little counter-intuitive, which is why this kind of thing is always tried but never actually solves the problem it is supposed to be solving.)
Look, price caps don’t reduce demand, it just reduces the number of people who are willing to provide the goods or services whose price is being capped. (Why provide a good or service if you are limited in the amount of profit available?) That reduces the supply, while demand for the good or service will increase over the levels it would be for the higher cost good or service. (The price is being kept artificially lower than the market would normally settle on, therefore the demand is artificially high.)
So instead of increasing the supply to the point where competition would increase efficiency and simultaneously lower costs, the Nanny State will simply tell you what amount of energy you are permitted to have. Because they know better.
Comments
Oh. My. Gowdzness. Is that really for real? I’m just...in shock.
More reason to leave here as soon as possible.
And people wonder why we dislike large government.
I know people who simply can’t comprehend it.
it’s going to get worse not better, are you ready for the gps’s in your car so they can tax you on the mileage you drive.
Have any of you read Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams? This reminds me of the Breathe-O-Smart controversy it talks about in that book.
I simply can’t believe this is happening in real life.
This reminds me of the Breathe-O-Smart controversy it talks about in that book.
The result of which now requires that “all mechanical or electrical or quantum-mechanical or hydraulic or even wind-, steam- or piston-driven devices are now required to have a certain legend emblazoned on them somewhere. It doesn’t matter how small the object is, the designers of the object have to find a way of squeezing the legend in somewhere, because it is their attention that is being drawn to it rather than necessarily that of the user’s.
The legend is this:
“The major difference between a thing that might go wrong and a thing that cannot possibly go wrong is that when a thing that cannot possibly go wrong goes wrong it usually turns out to be impossible to get at or repair.”
Orwell lives…
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