To the Editor:
My Eversource bill went from $167.85 for last January, 2017, to $430.37 this January, 2018. More than double with no explanation, which has prompted me to write this letter.
Whether we like it or not, we have entered another industrial revolution, where coal and then oil were king, but between fracking and burning the stuff, it is now destroying us and our planet. And just as cars usurped horses, and electricity proved more efficient than fire, we need a different fuel or we fail.
It doesn’t take a nuclear physicist to know we already have a nuclear power station up and running, making clean energy by converting hydrogen to helium at no cost, with a great safety record, situated some 93 million miles away.
And the real advantage is that sunbeams are like raindrops. No person, entity, corporation, government, or country can ever own them. They are free to anyone and everyone who wishes to harness or collect the energy they provide.
For me, solar is the only way to go.
June Parker
Vineyard Haven
And Donald Trump places a 25% tariff on solar panels.
Way to go for all those who voted for him and Big Oil.
Fracking is the reason your bill wasn’t $800, and with less environmental impact than ethanol.
Actually if oil and gas imports and storage capacity increased along with improvements to pipeline capacity were invested in your bill would be more like $90.
But yeah, go hang up another PV.
Oil driller —I thought it has been the goal of many an administration to make us “energy independent” — and now you want to import more oil ? Even the republicans don’t want that.. your $ 90 estimate is a joke , right ?
Ever think about air quality ? Local consequences of everything you speak of ? Future generations ? I guess I should give you some credit, since you are not advocating using whale oil.
I think my point was missed –
Renewable energy is wonderful, and available , but won’t lower the price of June’s energy bill within the next say 2 decades. Fracking already has, and our section of the northeast is squeezed between a couple pipelines that under supply our current need. There’s no magic behind our market price, but there is a bottleneck.
We import or export based on price, as does the rest of the world , Kuwait has imported gas in the last decade, but we are both able to domestically supply our market. ( That would however also be at a higher price ) It’s a mildly complex, or rather constantly moving trading market, oil and gas, and has much more effect on June’s bill than candyland thinking that building some solar panels will bring costs down. If she wants to in fact pay more, we can try to further invest in renewables, changing the quality/impact of the energy produced.
There is another possibility, that the cost of energy never goes down again. It would be a *really good idea* if the technology and manufacturing for renewable were in place before fossil becomes too expensive.
oil driller– well said. It’s good to see a reasonable comment addressing the issue. Let me remind you though, that apx half of Junes bill is for delivery. I don’t know is she knows how to read her bill, but it puts the cost analysts out there pretty clearly. of course, if everyone starts putting solar in, that is pretty disruptive for the electric co’s business model- —but that’s another subject.. solar is getting pretty cheap these days– the people selling panels give you a pretty rosy picture about payback time, but if you have the money to invest, it will certainly beat putting it in the bank over 20 years..
And, conservation is the best way to lower your bill.. I see so many people who leave their 200 watt outside lights on 24 / 7. I am still amazed at the resistance to led light bulbs.
Big Oil has figured out if fuel prices increase enough, whether to heat homes or make cars go zoom, customers cut back; they budget, find other ways to get the job done. This knocks the stuffing out of Big Oil earnings until the flow to market can be adjusted.
June– nobody owns the wind either–
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