For those of us growing weary of hearing about the energy crisis,
coupled with the concept of more bailouts for corporations such as AIG
and the rest of Wall Streets finest, we may finally have the
"pick-me-up" you've been craving, in the form of green sustainability.
The truth is, "bailouts", are not just limited to Wall Street thieves.
Energy Companies like Progress Energy have been granted a "pre-emptive
bailout", for a boondoggle that hasn't even been built yet. No longer do
corporations have to screw up and gamble away their money in order to
have the government hand them more of our hard earned cash. Now they can
be given the right to reach into our wallets, to subsidize their
gambling schemes before they even get started. It's called Advanced Cost
Recovery and the proposed Levy County nuclear plant is the first of more
to come. Progress Energy started adding 25% to their customer's bills
this January of 2009, in part to pre-pay for their nuclear power
project. They are taxing citizens for this corporation's private gain.
13 16 1 thumb11 Solving the energy crisis and ending bailouts for real!
But wait, where's the "pick me up", I referred to earlier? Like you, the
only thing that makes me more weary, than hearing of another bailout, is
hearing another person complain about it without offering any hope or
solutions. Well, this time we have both. I have been researching this
issue for some time now and have uncovered several solutions. Let's
begin with the most ambitious. We can create Municipal Utility Companies
in each and every Chartered City in Florida. Right now Florida has 34
Muni's according to the FMEA, some producing their own power and others
buying power from abroad. The most shining example of a well functioning
Muni, is the Gainesville Regional Utility Company. They use some of the
revenue they collect to pay for the City's police, fire, and parks and
recreation (lowering taxes instead of lining the pockets of a corporate
CEO). The GRU is also the country's first municipality to introduce the
Feed In Tariff to pay for Solar Panels for their residents. This is the
method Germany used to help encourage homeowners to install
Photo-Voltaic (PV) panels on their homes- The homeowner gets paid 32
cents for every kilowatt produced by their solar panels and then only
has to pay 12 cents for every kilowatt used in the home. This allows
residents to become entrepreneurs, making a profit from sunshine (for
more details visit FARE). 13 48 2 thumb11 Solving the energy crisis and
ending bailouts for real!
How then, you ask, does a city that is covered by a monopoly, like
Progress Energy, TECO, or Florida Power & Light, do this? One way is to
do what the City of Winter Park did. They broke free from Progress
Energy, when their franchise agreement was up, and now the City of
Winter Park has control over its own power. They are currently issuing
bonds to help put the power lines underground. They will have the
opportunity and the option to move toward wind and solar power to help
meet their city's energy needs. They could then place solar panels on
the land that currently holds the large type, high tension transmission
line towers. Thousands of acres of land, which is already maintained and
is currently unused, can be utilized and covered by PV panels, which can
deliver power directly to the grid. This will prove more efficient than
a large centralized production facility because there will be less loss
in the transmission of the power, as it will be spread out along the
many miles of land that these towers and lines already occupy.
We are currently researching many franchise agreements between Progress
Energy and various cities throughout Florida, in order to help other
cities obtain their freedom from corporate monopolies. So far we have
noticed a trend, of diminishing rights for city residents. For example,
in Tarpon Springs' 1961 Franchise agreement with PE, the City had the
right to buy back the power grid (like in Winter Park), and in the
current agreement that provision is missing. Also missing in the current
agreement is the right for the city to renegotiate the 30 year contract
every 10 years. Valuable information is being uncovered as we pour over
the lengthy legal documents. More to come as the records requests keep
pouring in. This is where you can get involved. Contact your local City
Representatives and ask about your City's Franchise Agreement, and take
a look at your City's Electric Bill. Start conversations with your
neighbors about what it might be like to have your own Muni Power
Company, who answers to the people, instead of out of town shareholders.
Call Winter Park and Gainesville, and ask them. Also call the City of
Belleair and ask about their experience trying to get the same freedom
from Progress Energy. Every chartered City can do this by referendum. Do
the research and start the petitions.
Another potential solution to both our energy needs and our need to be
free from bailing out corporate energy producers is, the Berkeley Model.
In Berkeley California, they have implemented a program for issuing
Bonds that can be used to buy solar panels for a home. The city pays the
upfront costs and the property owners repay the costs over 20 years
through a special assessment on their property tax bills. This model
allows the cost to remain with the house, so if sold or even foreclosed
on, the house and the solar panels would go to the new owner, and the
monthly tax increase would go along too, as well as the savings of
course due to no electric bill. Again, contact your Mayor and
Representatives, and demand that they study this option. This can be
done in your city. images11 Solving the energy crisis and ending
bailouts for real!
Yet another potential solution actually allows a corporation to be the
savior: I call this the SunRun Model, after the SunRun solar company in
San Francisco California. This is an example of a corporation paying all
of the upfront costs and ongoing maintenance for solar systems on each
home. The home owner, then pays a monthly fee, either for the
electricity used or the fee could simply be used to pay back the loan
for the systems cost (a hair splitting detail that may have to be ironed
out due to Florida's laws in regard to who is allowed to sell
electricity). Even this model will help break the grip of dirty oil,
coal and nuclear corporate monopolies. The way to help make this happen
is for you to encourage the passage of solar friendly local ordinances,
and state laws, like the Feed-in Tariff. Then call European,
California-based and local Florida companies and tell them we have new
markets opening due to the passage of these new incentives. Thus, new
Green Jos are created (40,000 in Germany)!
We can produce clean, safe, and renewable energy locally. We can
complete our energy producing projects more quickly and efficiently than
their proposed nuclear plants, as well as create local green jobs in the
process. And we can do it for much less money. Let us ween ourslves off
of the corporations that we have entrusted with too much, for far to
long. No more bailouts for corporate private profits. It's time to bail
ourselves out of the mess that greedy corporations have put us in.
Let's create our own energy. And in doing so, we shall energize our
economy, our neighborhoods, and ourselves. Let's take back our power,
literally!