In California, years ago during a water moratoriam, we were commandeered to use less water, heavily fined if caught…and of course less water meant less revenue so they raised the rates to offset the loss in revenues…Shocka!! They didn’t lower the rates when water flowed back…

right2bright on January 4, 2013 at 3:44 PM

Same thing happened here in North Carolina a couple of years ago. We’re still paying the higher rates.

As for electricity: 6 year old house…new ‘efficient’ heat pump been repaired 5 times already. Wasn’t installed correctly. Froze up the first year. Then, fine until the warranty ran out then cost over $3000 to repair. Runs all the time, uses more auxiliary heat than our 25-year-old heat pump on a former house, costs twice as much to run, even with the temp set at 65, which is as cold as we can stand it. Now Duke Power has taken over and is going to raise rates by 15% to cover their “green energy initiatives.”

M240H on January 4, 2013 at 5:34 PM

Yeah, bikers are a tiny minority of the population and behave like some kind of persecuted homosexual group.

The rest of the world sees FTW as meaning “For the Win”.

Bikers do use the internet – to date for the most part.

In the 1970′s many homes did not have a TV or an electric dryer or air conditioning. Now they do. Most of our increase in energy consumption was in the came as things like A/C became ubiquitous. Once everyone had it, the increase stopped. This is particularly so with the poor who now have TV sets, air conditioning, computers, and just as many “wall warts” powering various electronics devices as everyone else.

It isn’t that anyone is using LESS energy, just that nearly everyone has now accumulated the things that had been driving the increase in energy consumption and the increase now just basically reflects population chance. Per capita energy consumption is going to be flat for a while until everyone starts getting electric cars and that energy switches from the gas pump to the power grid. But that won’t be for another hundred years or so at large scale.

philw1776 on January 4, 2013 at 6:17 PM

Has he checked any wires leading to the next door neighbor’s machine shop?

I used to turn off people’s lights for a living.

Gooood times, goood times.

This is helping climate change, why we just set a record in snow cover in the northern hemisphere. But, er, we have the water vaporist fighters who say higher temps, wetter air, ergo, more snow..

We also had the coldest start to a winter season in history in some areas.

Now we are in a five to eight day warmup followed by the hammer!

I guess former vice President Al Gor is busy selling Current TV to Al Jazerra and will be all over this phony cold climate change as soon as he can start collecting $250K a speeech or whatever he was minting money doing.

You go Al, a real liberal!

What a pile of crap, in all regards. Including, with apologies, Erika’s “analysis”. Energy use is down because a huge portion of this nation is now out of work and can’t afford to pay steadily increasing utility rates, ergo they are using as little as possible. FORCED reduction, COERCED reduction, is nothing to f*cking cheer. And it sure shit ‘energy star’ efficiencies. Just how many major appliances do you idiots think have been bought in the last few years of recession and severe economic and employment uncertainty?

rayra on January 4, 2013 at 3:49 PM

This.

And normal productivity gains are outstripping GDP because GDP has sucked over the past 4 years.

If the economy ramped to a healthy pace, then energy usage would certainly increase.

It’s not uncommon to have $400 electrical bills in July and August and that is with running 1 small 5000 BTU room air conditioner only on very hot days. All major appliances, except the fridge, are only ever used in off peak hours after 8 pm. My house is less than 1200 SF and I have not seen an electrical bill under $150 in years.

Say what?
My more than twice as large 2600 square foot home in New Hampshire with central air and 2 story high ceilings in the LR/DR area runs at $75/month average at 14 cents per KWH.
You REALLY need to get one of those watt meters and measure everything. You’re paying 4 times more per square foot than I am and I run my central air a lot.

The fraud of “Energy Star”

Gasoline powered alarm clocks = “Green Device”

BobMbx on January 4, 2013 at 4:02 PM

I make it a point to vigorously shred all the flyers my electric company sends me exhorting me to buy new, so-called “Energy Star” rated appliances. Hell, no. The appliances we bought over 20 years ago are still going strong and I am not about to get rid of them until — just like my car — a repairman tells me they’re not worth fixing any more.

letget on January 4, 2013 at 4:59 PM

In PA, we were able to sign up with a select few electric companies who offered competitive, lower rates for a period of time, so I tried it. My electric bills weren’t outrageous to begin with, but they are several dollars lower than they were previously, even in the summer.

M240H on January 4, 2013 at 5:34 PM

I’m thinkin’ scooter trash probably shouldn’t be the arbiter of culture…oh wait. Given where our culture appears to be yer right. It would be a vast improvement if they were.

(have to admit to riding the original crotch rocket, Triumph Bonny with frenched shorties, as loud as it was fast. Glad I survived it)

My house is less than 1200 SF and I have not seen an electrical bill under $150 in years.

y’all are doing it wrong, we have a 2,000 sf house in Houston and I never broke $150 this year. We do have a gas dryer though. My highest days of usage twice in a row are Christmas day 2011 and 2012. DanMa’am likes the pretty lights on all day on Christmas.

Our rates in Houston are about 10 cents/kWH if you shop. letget mentioned co-ops. My parents were in one in Huntsville and they had the lowest rates I knew of. Except from deregulation but great rates nonetheless.

Ms. Johnsen, I suspect you are using the acronym “FTW” to signify ‘for the win’. I also believe you don’t know any bikers- and I don’t mean Schwinns or even Yamahas. “FTW” is a one-percenter term in the bike realm meaning ” F*** The World.” You should seriously reconsider using those letters.

M240H on January 4, 2013 at 5:34 PM

It has lots of other designations as well. A few of the so-called 1% of motorcycle enthusiasts use this word, so the more common public understanding of “For The Win” should be abandoned?

Next your going to tell me that the Obama Administration shouldn’t have pushed their “Win The Future” (WTF) idea.

letget on January 4, 2013 at 4:59 PM

Sounds like a good deal. Our public utility, in addition to increasing rates, has been dumping Millions into “researching” renewables, and recently built a brand new million+ dollar complex that produces zero electricity. It simply houses their service trucks and office personnel. It also has heated floors in the shop and a 65″ flatscreen in nearly every office. It is absolutely disgusting. They have no concept of cutting expenditures as they are not forced to compete for their customer base. They simply raise rates to make up for any shortfall. Then consumers use less electricity to save money and rates go up again. I figure it will bottom out at a certain base load of electricty eventually, but I have a feeling my monthly bill will be north of $800 by then.

Americans are using more gadgets, televisions and air conditioners than ever before. But, oddly, their electricity use is barely growing, posing a daunting challenge for the nation’s utilities.

The Energy Information Administration is projecting that electricity use in the U.S. will rise an average of just 0.6% a year for industrial users and 0.7% for households through 2040.

If the environmental permitting laws had remained what they were in 2008, a stagnant or slowly-rising demand for electricity would not be a “daunting problem” for utilities–they would continue to run the same power plants, or try to replace coal-fired plants by natural gas-fired plants to take advantage of relatively abundant and cheap natural gas.

But the environmental “rules” imposed by Obama’s EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, which restrict the emissions of carbon dioxide by both coal-fired and gas-fired power plants make it extremely difficult to re-permit an existing power plant, whose permits need renewal every 5 years. Since the “rules” were put into place in 2010, the entire fleet of power plants will have to be re-permitted by 2015, which will probably lead to massive shutdowns of power plants to avoid the need for massive investments for CO2 capture. Even if electricity demand is stagnant, a declining supply WOULD be a “daunting problem” for utilities–the need for massive investments for CO2 capture, with higher fuel consumption for CO2 compression, while demand and revenues remain constant.

A “daunting problem” created uniquely by the Obama Administration!

Eco-radicals seem to take great pleasure in indiscriminately fighting tooth-and-nail against economic growth in all corners of the world, no matter if it means killing jobs or perpetuating poverty, because they too often believe that prosperity-for-all and global environmental quality are necessarily and mutually exclusive ends

…the wrong people!…are always massacered!

weaselyone on January 4, 2013 at 4:52 PM

We here in S TX have a ‘co-op’ on our electricty. It is very reasonable and all who are in the ‘co-op’ own part of the company. This year we got a $75 Christmas gift from them, taken off our past bill. And at the last bill we got a 175+credit. Last month we paid nothing and for next month we have a 37 credit on our bill. If anyone has/can look into a co-op you might save money? I have no idea if this will continue, but WE are very happy with them.
L

The end result is the opposite of supply and demand, the opposite of how a free market operates. Precisely what you would expect from publicly run companies.

The rest is simple mechanical/electrical efficiency increases, not the BS EE-tags slapped on appliances. A/C is the hog that feeds, mine uses about 4KWh when it’s in use (and it’s fairly old). So once all buildings had A/C, all that was left was to improve it, and insulation.

FYI: EE washers are terrible, ironically more expensive than “normal” ones, and provide tax incentives to companies.

My new furnace barely heats the house, my new dishwasher barely rinses my dishes, but they’re “efficient.” And the companies get govt subsidies if they meet their energy standards.

A friend of mine finally got solar panels for air con. Her electricity bill in CA was $800/month. Sure, she can do it, but others less well off just leave the state. Can’t afford it.

FTW: Americans are using less electricity

More factories in China and Malaysia?

sharrukin on January 4, 2013 at 3:46 PM

Heh.

A pretty static analysis, Erika. What do you suppose has happened to domestic use of natural gas (over electricity) given its continual decline in price?

Just how many major appliances do you idiots think have been bought in the last few years of recession and severe economic and employment uncertainty?

rayra on January 4, 2013 at 3:49 PM

The fraud of “Energy Star”

Gasoline powered alarm clocks = “Green Device”