Green Power can be cheaper than Coal/Gas/Fossil Utilities

For the past year, my apartment has been getting electricity from a group called coned solutions. This power company provided "green power" as a part of Coned - a power company in NYC using wind power and hydroelectricity.

I would like to point out that since signing the agreement to use only Coned Solutions our power bill has been less than it would have been if we used the standard Fossil Fuel energy choice. I am surprised that the media has not noticed this yet (Environment and Energy TV is an exception, see below).

Since energy rates are probably locked in when choosing green energy, my situation might be different from newer users of green energy.

Here is an outtake from a discussion with Lester Brown on E and E TV - a subscription service. http://www.eande.tv/main/ Lester has this to say about wind power's affordability:


Lester Brown: Well the growth in wind power in recent years has been around 30% a year. Last year, in this country, it grew by 35%. There's an enormous amount of wind energy in the world and some exciting things happening in this field now. One is that, as you know, many utilities have offered consumers a green power option now for probably close to a decade. If you wanted green power you signed up for it and you paid more for it, 10% more or 15% more, depending on the situation. But now in some parts of the country – and I've seen the detailed data for Austin, Texas for example. In the Austin region of Texas those who signed up for green power years ago and have been getting it ever since are now getting it cheaper than the utility rate because a lot of the fuel for generating electricity in that part of the country comes from natural gas. And as you know natural gas prices have doubled in the last 14 months. So suddenly there are a lot of good environmentalists out there now who want green power. But it's an example of how the lines are crossing. I had a phone call from my son sometime back. He was driving on one of the interstates in West Texas. And he saw one of the new wind farms and the rows of wind turbines sort of receding toward the horizon. It's a huge wind farm. And interspersed among the rows of wind turbines were oil pumps and the oil wells were pumping and the wind turbines were turning. And he said it was such a graphic image because it was the past and the future meeting. What he was looking at was the energy transition, the old energy economy with the new energy economy superimposed on it. But there are a lot of exciting things happening with wind now. I mean one of the most interesting, to me, and probably the most important, is Goldman Sachs going into the wind business. I think it was a year ago this month roughly that they thought a small company that built wind farms called Horizon. As of today Horizon has about 5000 megawatts of wind generating capacity, either under construction or in the planning stages. 5000 megawatts is equal to 17 average sized coal-fired power plants. I mean it's not a trivial commitment and that's only within one year. I mean I think they're just getting started.

Southern Tier Tour 2001 Part 8 (back from the dead!)

Where to go in New Orleans?

Forget Burbon street, if you're travelling to NOLA get over to Magazine street. Grab a cup of coffee at rue de la course, then follow it up with breakfast at Slim Goodies Diner - just look for the line of locals waiting for a seat.

rue de la course has a great cup of cafe americano, and is spacious enough for you to read a newspaper or log on with wifi.

If you're doing the tourist bit, grab the $38 fruits de mer plate at the Bourbon House Seafood & Oyster Bar. It'll feed four, or stuff two.

Get reservations to see Ellis Marsalis at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro on Friday nights.



rue de la course
Garden District3121 Magazine St. (9th St.)New Orleans, LA504-899-0242Cuisine: Coffeehouse, Dessert

Slim Goodies Diner
Garden District3322 Magazine St.(Toledano St.) New Orleans, LA 70115504-891-3447


Bourbon House Seafood & Oyster Bar
French QuarterAstor Crowne Plaza Hotel144 Bourbon St.(bet. Canal & Iberville Sts.) New Orleans, LA 70130504-522-0111

Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro Faubourg Marigny626 Frenchmen St.(bet. Chartres & Royal Sts.) New Orleans, LA 70116504-949-0696

The Takings Issue

http://www.law.georgetown.edu/gelpi/takings/index.htm


The Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute (GELPI) has a great website talking about the takings issue. You know this as the government's power of eminent domain to seize private property for economic development purposes.

The New York Times recently mentioned that:

More neutral observers expressed concern that state officials, in their zeal to protect homeowners and small businesses, would handcuff local governments that are trying to revitalize dying cities and fill in blighted areas with projects that produce tax revenues and jobs.
"It's fair to say that many states are on the verge of seriously overreacting to the Kelo decision," said John D. Echeverria, executive director of the Georgetown Environmental Law and Policy Institute and an authority on land-use policy.

"The danger is that some legislators are going to attempt to destroy what is a significant and sometimes painful but essential government power. The extremist position is a prescription for economic decline for many metropolitan areas around the county."

Southern Tier Tour 2001 Part 7

New York City Blizzard 2/12/06