U.S. electricity blackouts skyrocketing
POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Tuesday, September 23, 2025 17:08
VIEWED: 1810
PAGE 2 of 3
Quote:OH NO! God forbid we should give the power over to an organization we can vote on!
What are you advocating? Government controlled power?
'Cause I really love MONOPOLY POWER, don't YOU?
I was going to post a rant about friggin' Verizon *ssholes dicking with our dsl service 'cause we don't go thru their service, but by god we gotta use their effin' line. So aside from gating our service (which they're not supposed to do 'cause we're paying top dollar for high speed) they left us high and dry for five days, one day without PHONE SERVICE.And let's not get started on net neutrality, and applications stealing your personal info off your smart phone.
Oh, yeah, I just LOVE monopolies.
It's like we're turning into a third-world country, for god's sake! Power goes out at random, the phone service is unreliable, ya gotta play nurse to your relatives in the hospital 'cause the hospitals are too friggin' understaffed to actually... yanno... take care of their patients just so that the insurances can rake in the big bucks. I mean... WTF??? When did we get so ideologically hidebound that we've gotten past the point of cutting off our noses to spite our faces? What is wrong with us??? Did we all take stupid pills, or something? Do we REALLY think that facts don't matter?
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Easy solution. Just raise the rates for electricity to that prevailing in most of the developed world, and fix the grid.
Of course, most rates are set by governmental agencies. They're supposed to be based on the utility's costs, but also consider political realities of keeping the current set of politicians in power. Someone who's in office when the rates go up will have a bad image to overcome.
"Keep the Shiny side up"
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Oh horse shit - not when MY local provider, also a monopoly, is allowed to make RETROACTIVE profits by charging an additional cost on top of the fucking bill, which in the case of natural gas, fully constitutes SIXTY PERCENT of my goddamn bill, or more, during the summer when the only thing using gas is the fuckin water heater and that thing is set to minimum anyhows.
And don't even get me started on Comcast, just don't, cause I got enough dirt on them that if anyone with the authority to do something gave a shit, they'd be run out of this STATE on a rail if not outright imprisoned, I am not whatever kidding.
So don't hand me that "free market" bullshit, especially when anyone who can remember Enron creating deliberate artificial shortages and outages to drive up the prices can refute you.
That one especially pisses me off, cause I pointed it out AT THE TIME, and got shouted down as a freakin conspiracy theorist, and fat lotta good it did coming out AFTER the rest of that bullshit - cause it was all fucking true.
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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Yep, it was all sadly true. So CA got stuck contracting for electricity at the then-prevailing rates, along with a 32 billion shortfall. And right after the contracts were signed, the rates came down.
Gee. Who could've ever guessed?
/snark
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Oh, my, I can't stay in this thread. If I even got STARTED on net neutrality, the Great California Electric Fuckover, or about any of the other things discussed here, well, I'd resemble RivkaneKirkAntiZit in my obscenities. No sense sujecting you guys to THAT.
Suffice it to say a simple 
to them all... 
(Aside from which, I have my own ranted to put up--related to this 
)
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off 
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Quote:
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Oh horse shit - not when MY local provider, also a monopoly, is allowed to make RETROACTIVE profits by charging an additional cost on top of the fucking bill, which in the case of natural gas, fully constitutes SIXTY PERCENT of my goddamn bill, or more, during the summer when the only thing using gas is the fuckin water heater and that thing is set to minimum anyhows.
We in the U.S. pay, on average, 1/2 to 1/4 of what folks in Europe and Japan pay. Then we bitch because the utilities don't have the money to keep the system upgraded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_pricing
BTW, we pay 2/3 to 1/2 of what Europe pays for natural gas.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/international/ngasprih.html
And your region pays below U.S. average for both gas and electricity.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/steo/pub/cf_tables/steotables.cfm?periodTy
pe=Annual&startYear=2004&startMonth=1&endYear=2008&endMonth=12&tableNumber=16
"Keep the Shiny side up"
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Here's one. We just had a ballot measure, cutely named something like "citizens right to vote" or something. The ads all touted that it gave people the right to vote on whether their electricity could be run by their local governments or private companies.
Now, the idea of local-government-owned electricity is a good one, most of the time. Look it up. It's been done. And of course the bill was proposed and the ads put up by electric companies. I got tagged and asked to sign the petition, along with a bunch of others. Luckily I READ the damned things and reject the ones that are sly, like this one.
But you put "don't you want to have your say", "Isn't it right you should get to vote" on a ballot measure, and people will most likely vote for it. Not realizing, of course, that if their local government DOES try to run it's own electric and that comes up on the ballot, they'll no doubt vote it down because it either costs money or "omigawd, the GOVERNMENT running it?!?!"
I don't remember whether it passed or not. I just remember being infuriated by the propaganda and the fact that most likely it would pass because of it.
How our country works.
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off
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Quote:Yeah, and yanno what they get? RELIABLE ELECTRICITY. GREEN POWER. FAST NEUTRAL INTERNET.
We in the U.S. pay, on average, 1/2 to 1/4 of what folks in Europe and Japan pay. Then we bitch because the utilities don't have the money to keep the system upgraded.
And yanno what WE get???
Massive profits for the wealthy. Screwed effing over.
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Quote:Well, some things are more important than others, Signy.
Originally posted by SignyM:
yanno what WE get???
Massive profits for the wealthy. Screwed effing over.
I'm personally willing to be screwed so that fat rich peeps can pay for hot models to blow them on their yachts in the Bahamas.
The laughing Chrisisall
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Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:Quote:Well, some things are more important than others, Signy.
Originally posted by SignyM:
yanno what WE get???
Massive profits for the wealthy. Screwed effing over.
I'm personally willing to be screwed so that fat rich peeps can pay for hot models to blow them on their yachts in the Bahamas.
And when I'm on my yacht in the Bahamas, I will thank you for your support!
AURaptor's Greatest Hits:
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 20:32 To AnthonyT:
Go fuck yourself.
On this matter, make no mistake. I want you to go fuck yourself long and hard, as well as anyone who agrees with you. I got no use for you.
Friday, May 28, 2010 - 18:26 To President Obama:
Mr. President, you're a god damn, mother fucking liar.
Fuck you, you cock sucking community activist piece of shit.
... go fuck yourself, Mr. President.
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