The Upside of Utility Deregulation

There is a positive outcome from the deregulation of utilities that as fostered during the Reagan Administration. That deregulation made it possible for competing gas suppliers and traditional electricity suppliers to compete and allegedly lower the cost to consumers. There was a secondary and some say an unintended consequence to that deregulation.

At the time of the changes to laws and regulations no one had ever heard of a commercial-grade solar or wind sourced supplier being able to generate electricity and move it to market.

What the deregulation process created was the ability for a legacy utility company to continue to deliver the commodities and charge a delivery fee separate from the actual commodity. The original idea was that small and competing providers could sell their commodity to the utility and they would blend it in with their own material. Then the idea of selling directly to the consumer took over.

Today, many Americans are able to choose the electricity supplier they want to buy from. Such providers may source some or all of their electricity from the wind or solar sources. Best of all the legacy utility company will deliver for the same fee as they do their own electricity.

A quick search of the Internet using ones zipcode can determine if there is the opportunity to buy electricity from an alternative source. Billing is transparent and seamless so there is no need to get two bills from two different companies. There is no investment to pay for. There are only yearly contracts to adhere to. While the price today may be a bit higher than coal, nuclear or hydro-electric power, the far smaller carbon footprint will make any ecologically sensitive consumer satisfied.

When I chose wind power I agreed to pay 0.5 cents more per kilowatt-hour.  That was a small price to pay for knowing that I was doing something good for the environment. Now I don't fret about leaving the light on.

Every time a consumer chooses to buy electricity from a wind or solar sourced utility provider they make it possible for that company to build more capacity. New alt sources are faster and easier to bring online. Similarly, as the technologies are improved, there is no need to stay stuck with the old tech.

Every time an investor with a conscious thinks about the choice between a legacy power source and a modern alternative source, he, she, they make it possible  to have energy AND a sustainable environment.

"That which brought us through the past century will not sustain us through the next one."

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Author's Note: The book cover images in the side margins of this blog are my own publications of eBooks available at both Amazon and B&N. Please take a moment and go to the sites and read about them. Then if you like it, buy one or two.

If I Had a Billion Dollars

If you had 1 billion dollars, your could explore for gas or oil or even open a coal mining operation with your investment. In doing so you would be investing in an 18th century energy source that certainly has a deleterious impact on the environment. Your meager contribution to the warming of the planet may in and of itself be minimal, but with all the other investors doing the same, the effect is cumulative. The Laws of Thermodynamics are absolute. You cannot break them. They will break you. Or brake you.

with your 1 billion dollars you could also invest in a massive wind turbine farm or a PV solar array that generates electricity without adding carbon dioxide to the air or massive amounts of previously stored heat. You would earn your profits with a non-polluting 21st century technology. The decision would be yours to make as the owner of the capital.

Whether or not the activities of 307 million Americans are altering the planet is not as big a deal as the activities of 3 billon people who reside on the India subcontinent and in China. Everyone is adding his small contribution to the alteration of the planet.

"The biggest peril that humans face is not war. It is not hurricanes. It's not a pandemic disease. It's not even sea level rise due to Arctic ice melt. What it is is the change in weather patterns that impact the availability of fresh water and the growing of food crops. The summer of 2012 brought with it a US Heartland drought that decimated the crop yields. The East Coast received more than its share of precipitation as the weather patterns had shifted a thousand miles eastward. So far the world has only been inconvenienced by Supply and Demand price increases. Two or three years of this shifted weather pattern could make the total amount of food produced be too little to feed everyone." Source

Sao Paulo, Brazil has not gotten nearly enough rainfall to maintain reservoir levels in light of the 20 million people who live there and rely on that rain. The Summer of 2015 will be critical for the lives of those people as the water faucets slow to a drip. In a similar vein, Los Angeles and the California farm land are facing the same drought conditions with a Summer 2016 doom-date.

"Let's put Global climate Change in its proper perspective. What ever the causes, whatever the magnitude, we humans need to figure out how we will live in the New Equilibrium." Source

We human beings have the ingenuity and intelligence to solve our environment problems and distribute fresh water to every city and population center on the planet. We have the capacity to design other ways to do what we do without consuming massive amounts of water. We only need the will to do it.

Maybe you groused at my suggestion that "if you had $1 billion to invest." While you and I don't have that level of wealth, there are many people who do. It is they who need to be influenced and convinced to make their profits in way that do not hurt the rest of us (and themselves.)