The time has come for us to change our power structure.
The time has come to for us to generate our own power.
The time has come for us to save some money!
This may be the very best time to invest in sustainable energy for your home. Many people are deciding to buy now. The rebates and incentives have really brought our effective costs down. I was quite surprised.
Of course, you could wait to see what incentives the Obama administration might add. But, if demand goes up, near-term prices are bound to go up too. And the longer you wait, the more CO2 gets emitted into the atmosphere.
Of course, you could wait a few years for new technology to bring the price of some of these components down. But remember, the longer you wait, the more monthly payments you keep sending away. Many of us have put this off for up to 30 years. Imagine how many power bills you could have saved on already.
With your own power generation comes
independence (wouldn't it be great to not care about energy policy)
self sufficiency (wouldn't it be great not care about fuel prices)
sustainability (wouldn't it be great to know you're doing the right thing)
We want all these – as soon as possible.
Besides, your own power generators are a very tangible and practical investment. For example; home wind and solar are far better investments than stocks right now.
US currency isn't stable now either. Market Watch reports, in their article; Fault Lines Emerge At The Fed “they believe an inflation storm is already in train” and “the danger of inflation is very high.” Inflation robs your savings. At 3% inflation – your money's worth half as much in 24 years. At 6% inflation – your money's worth half as much in 12 years. And at 12% inflation – your money's worth half as much in 6 years! The 1970's saw inflation rates over 14%. (We presently have some of the same economic conditions that caused the inflation of the 1970's. Most notably; a long, protracted, expensive war financed by deficit spending. Hyper-inflation could happen again – maybe even worse.) Translation; the price of energy independence may never be cheaper!
But (of course) the price of fossil fuels are down. Why would you want to buy now?
I think we all know that the price of fossil fuels will rise again and again. Somebody's playing us... again.
60 minutes has pointed out that the speculation tactics that Enron used during the 2001 rolling blackouts (in California) were used during the run-up in gas prices in 2008. Sadly, with deregulation, 7 years later, our government still hasn't put in place laws to protect us from another Enron.
However, we saw something even more frightening this winter. In the CNN article; Freezing Europeans Suffer As Gas Dispute Drags On Russia shut down whole economies in Bulgaria and Slovakia, during the dead of winter – because they couldn't afford to pay. Let's hope this doesn't happen here in America... But when you think about it, this happens every day here – to individuals. (Good news; with your own generator, you'll still be warm, no matter how broke you are.)
But hey, with global warming, in a few years we won't need to heat our homes!
Seriously though, Wired Magazine reports that scientists have found that “our atmosphere has 28 percent more carbon dioxide now than any time in the past 800,000 years.”
You'd think that fact, in itself, would be enough to make any reasonable person want to do whatever they can to fix this. But there's more...
Guess what? The coal industry has been lying to us about “clean coal.” Time magazine reports, in their article Exposing The Myth Of Clean Coal that the toxic coal ash spill in Tennessee contained “100 times more waste than the Exxon Valdez disaster.” ... “This is hazardous waste, and it should be classified as such.” But it isn't. ... “Though the EPA in the past has come close to imposing stricter rules on the treatment of coal ash, the agency has repeatedly backed down in the face of opposition from utilities and the coal industry.”
Government is definitely the problem now. Our government has been privatized. And just when we thought things might change. The Wall Street Journal reports in the January 15 article; Coal industry (miraculously) Digs Itself Out Of A Hole In The Capitol that “Big Coal is on a roll in the nation's capitol.”
What???
Didn't America vote against Big Coal. We voted for that other guy. Didn't he win?
We can't allow him to back down now.
It looks like we have to vote again.
But this time with our check books.
This is the only vote they really understand...
They won't build the coal-fired power plants when they realize they don't have the customers...
I don't hate the power companies. I just want them to do the right thing. And until they see us leaving in mass, their customers' health won't be the priority.
We can make a big difference. And I hope to accomplish this for even less money than we would expect purchasing these systems ourselves.
I would like to get together with others and buy sustainable energy components at volume discounts. If this works out locally, I would like to organize a nationwide buying cooperative.
Email me at rickspils@excite.com
If you live in rural Nevada, Utah, or Idaho; we can buy together and negotiate a better price.
If you live elsewhere, email me anyway so that I can gage how big the demand is for a cooperative.
