George Washington said, “Government is fire,” in order to illustrate the disastrous consequences of letting a good thing follow its natural tendency to get out of control. Today, when the wisdom of sages is deemed far inferior to the instincts of animals with the smallest of brains, the saying may be remixed into, “Government is energy.” This would accomplish the two-fold popular purpose of misusing physics terms and implicitly putting government in control of the wheelworks of civilization. After all, is not the bulk of progressive public policy directed toward turning individuals into sniveling knaves who eat, enjoy shelter, and even harbor thoughts only with the good graces of government?
State Representative Patsy Keever (D-Buncombe) is the primary primary sponsor of House Bill 135. The bill proposes restructuring rates charged by electric companies. The stated goal is “to achieve a 40% to 60% statewide reduction in electricity consumption from 2010 levels within 10 years.” To accomplish this, commercial/industrial users will be gouged. Residential users, otherwise known as potential voters, could see their rates reduced. Far be it from businesses to try to pass along costs to consumers. In fact, I’m somewhat surprised the bill does not have a prohibition on doing so.
Anyway, rates will be low for a specified level of energy consumption in each tier required, but not defined, by the bill. Excess consumption will be billed at a higher rate. One news report claimed low-income families would be exempt from penalties for excess use, but I am unable to read that language into the bill. In a day where equality is all the rage, the bill states, “The inverted tiered block rate structure for industrial and commercial customers shall be tailored on a case-by-case basis to maximize the benefit of investing in energy efficiency and job creation.”
But there’s more. The bill would also impose a 5% privilege tax for retailers selling products that do not qualify for the Energy Star label. Energy Star is a government-backed program that is still encouraging folks to “Join the Lorax and Energy Star and Fight Global Warming.” The unqualified appliances would be known as “energy inefficient products.”
The proceeds from excess energy use and energy inefficient product sales would support a loan fund for persons to make green retrofits to their abodes. This would be known as the Energy Efficiency Public Benefit Loan Fund. Also paying into the fund would be the savings realized by public utilities after closing peak demand facilities, as well as interest paid on loans from the fund. These revenue streams would also be used to fund administration of the program and award grants for green projects in low-income households. By making the lien payable through utility bills, the state would be circumventing Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac’s destructive blow to the PACE program, which proposed the same thing only with liens that would run with property.
If we play our cards right, we might put the utility companies in the dire straits of requiring a federal takeover. Bingo.
