Comments on The Burd Report: It feels good when it stops!

According to this article: http://www.northumberl...

2009-09-27T10:23:27.521-04:00

According to this article:

http://www.northumberlandnews.com/news/cobourg/article/131788

the line voltage is going to be increased, which increases efficiency. Will the 4% charge be reduced?

Side note: higher voltage will not cause cancer. What actually does cause cancer is everything your parents told you was good for you - sunlight, red meat and college. (Sorry I am paraphrasing Woody Allen there)

Who out there thinks that these schemes are the pr...

2009-09-22T15:07:03.219-04:00

Who out there thinks that these schemes are the product of political minds? I venture to say that the bureaucracy has more to do with devising this convolution than any politician. Who then thinks we would not have seen this idea bear fruit under any other government? It simply becomes the party in power's job of selling it to us and therein lie the lies.

If we punish the party in power for telling the truth, as we are prone to, and their replacement suffers the same fate for the same reason, sooner or later we're gonna run out of scapegoats, I'd say. Then perhaps we'll turn a corner and begin to improve the system for the better. But that calls for some exercising of integrity by ALL the parties equally and for an extended timeframe, a scenario that's highly improbable at best.

As for the 'smart meter deal', to me it appears to be an attempt to address power supply issues by raising more cash to deal with short range solutions such as buying power from other sources until some permanent solutions can be devised, and the meters are an attempt to make the users pay proportionally. So I'm not trashing the idea, but I am peeved at the selling con about helping us to "save".

In a telling remark from the 1992 US election deba...

2009-09-22T12:54:53.047-04:00

In a telling remark from the 1992 US election debates, Bill Clinton trumpeted that he didn't want his children to be part of the first generation of Americans who lived a life less well off than their parents.

Though not as tragic as his response to the Rwandan genocide, his remark was a lost opportunity to tell the truth to Americans--and by proxy to the rest of the world: the party's over, it's time to call it a day.

You are right, Ben: the only option is reduction, but reduction affects one choice of lifestyle. Let us know when you are ready to bite this bullet.

It's like the endless pitch by business types ...

2009-09-22T12:50:40.408-04:00

It's like the endless pitch by business types that says "Buy now and save".

The joke is that you spend $50 to "save" $5, paying $45. If you bought because of this differential rather than a real need to buy, then you're $45 poorer at the end while having acquired an unnecessary 'whatever'. What have you saved? Somebody else's day, probably. Then, to justify the foolishness, we brag about "saving" $5 and encourage others to behave just as foolishly. What a con, and we keep buying into it, just like with this hydro con.

BTW - have you ever taken note of the "loss factor" on your bill? We pay an extra 4% for losses that occur in the system. Just think how much juice that really is! If that loss was reduced by 50% imagine the real and huge savings to EVERYONE, industrial, commercial and residential. Now there's some real savings to be had, but it's not something any of us can implement ourselves. Maybe the producers and distributors themselves need to take the idea of improving efficiencies far more seriously, just like they want the rest of us to do.

Politicians lie to us because they know that we (m...

2009-09-22T12:07:51.782-04:00

Politicians lie to us because they know that we (middle-class whiners) will punish them if they tell us the truth.

Witness Iggy (and Harper) telling us that they will neither cut programs nor raise taxes. No one believes what they say, but Iggy saw what happened to Dion and the Carbon Shift. Taxes have become the electrified third rail of Canadian politics.

See this article by Martin Regg Cohn on this subject in today's Star, who writes this:

But don't blame the politicians. They're just doing our bidding until we voters show we're ready to bite the bullet.

Well, I'm ready to bite the bullet. When more of us are so inclined, we will have some movement for the common good on carbon emissions and health care and education and ....

William: You have got it all wrong. The issue is...

2009-09-22T11:54:37.639-04:00

William:

You have got it all wrong. The issue is not about conserving or reducing hydro. In many instances that has been done already.

The issue is being charged extra for the same amount of service, and having this sold to us by fraudulent means.

I doubt if any of this money is going to our local publicly owned utility. They are just passing on the cost of what they pay for hydro.

Although you and I can pay extra for hydro many people cannot, and have little gap between incomings and outgoings. Why should they be cheated by the government. Governments and utility companies exist to serve people, not to gouge them.

You seem to be advocating that we forgive con-men because they also have to live. I disagree.

Greg

Bill Just how does one reduce whilst maintaing the...

2009-09-22T10:38:20.483-04:00

Bill
Just how does one reduce whilst maintaing the minimum of current usage? How does one save when conservation is maxed out and the only option is reduction, but reduction affects one choice of lifestyle. We are being gouged and told at the same time that "You can save"
bastards!

Greg Hancock: Lest you think that my comments wer...

2009-09-22T10:24:17.156-04:00

Greg Hancock: Lest you think that my comments were entirely self-serving, let me confess to life-long membership in the army of middle-class twits.

Now that you have (by your own admission) done all that you can do to conserve hydro, you (and I and all the other middle-class twits within earshot) must take the next step: we must reduce our consumption of hydro. Increased rates will help us do that nicely.

The problem that you identify (net savings from householder efficiencies going to hydro producers) is solved (also nicely) by ensuring that production and distribution of hydro are public, not-for-profit enterprises. Then the savings go to us!

Ben: I did an independent and detailed calculatio...

2009-09-21T21:13:02.683-04:00

Ben:

I did an independent and detailed calculation and also came up with the result that a household currently getting all its hydro at the 5.7 cent rate would pay an extra 20% for hydro. There is not very much hydro consumption that can be shifted to off-peak times. Perhaps dishwashing machines can be, but doubt I don't really see Canadians staying up late at night to do other household chores just because the province has a whim.

It therefore seems fair to characterize it as a cash grab by the province. Unless of course the province intends to reintroduce lower rates for the first 1260 KW used, but they do not say this.

To use William Hayes's memorable phrase I am a "middle class twit" who has replaced nearly all his lights with compact fluorescents, and also due to failure of most of our old appliances has been forced to buy new ones over the past two years. Surprisingly our average hydro usage has dropped by about 50% showing that these measures really do work. So, the good news is I have cut my hydro bills by half, and although we live in a larger house we still fit in the 1260kw limit. The bad news is that we have had to spend a considerable amount on new appliances.

Unfortunately after making all these savings I will be sharing the misery of paying and extra 20% when the smart meter rates take effect.

It would be much fairer if the new rates were calculated to lead to neutral effect. Realize that any savings made by householders switching to off-peak hours are a net gain to the hydro producers since they will still be able to sell all their peak hour production.

When photo radar was introduced it was seen popularly as a cash grab, and probably contributed to the downfall of the government. The replacement government reversed the decision. I’m not a supporter of "the common-sense revolution" which was based on common sense principles such as "anybody using common sense can see that the world is flat". However if the current government persists in this hydro cash grab it has only itself to blame if it is voted out of office.

Middle class twits knew how to use less fuel and r...

2009-09-21T13:26:46.892-04:00

Middle class twits knew how to use less fuel and reduce the seriousness of auto injuries, but only the "cash grab" of photo radar got them to do it. Similarly, middle class twits know how to conserve hydro, but only the "cash grab" of smart meters will get them to do that.

Both photo radar and smart meters are great ideas whose times have come--again, in the case of photo radar.

Where, Deb O'C, did you get the idea that you need to tramp around to the far side of your house through the snow at night to see if you can save a nickel doing your laundry at midnight? Since you know the hours of peak- and off-peak pricing, all you need do is look at the clock!

Really, Ben and Deb, you are sounding like Mike Harris Tories of my acquaintance on the eve of their first election win. As I see it, if people can't pay their hydro bills, they don't need lower hydro rates, they need higher income.

Just like Canadians, every time we are pushed by o...

2009-09-20T18:37:20.402-04:00

Just like Canadians, every time we are pushed by our government or businesses we wait until we receive them before we complain.

So glad that Ben has confirmed my initial suspicio...

2009-09-20T11:09:57.869-04:00

So glad that Ben has confirmed my initial suspicions about the Smart Meter. I'm just furious that this is being imposed on us with no choice and we have to actually pay for the stupid thing.

I can just see myself tramping around to the far side of my house through the snow at night to check and see if I can save a nickel doing my laundry at midnight.

What a joke - a typical liberal joke, if I may be just a bit partisan here. It's like Ben says, we already know how to conserve hydro and this is nothing but a cash grab.

Hey, is it the Province or Lakefront taking our money this time, I like to know who is screwing me.

CFL light bulbs (and some energy saving appliances...

2009-09-20T11:06:27.394-04:00

CFL light bulbs (and some energy saving appliances) may actually be a net loss, because for much of the year the extra heat was a benefit.