A more independent government

[_ajax18]

You, personally, Ajax, are going to do your part to bail out California.

And I shall smile ear to ear as you do so.

I know you will. I suppose when you have a captive labor force letting go of it is never an attractive option.

You're not twelve, are you? There's not going to be a revolution, at least not one that expands beyond Facebook. Nobody is going to secede. Please, Ajax, let's put these childish fantasies away.

It shouldn't take a revolution to form our own county. Right now there is no competing utility company. They could charge me $1500/month this summer and I can either pay it or move out. Even the liberals hate this utility company. I just hope they're aware that green energy is in large part to blame for it.

[_moksha]

Ajax, just cling to the hope that the confederacy shall rise again and its capital shall be on Galt Island.

[_Gunnar]

It shouldn't take a revolution to form our own county. Right now there is no competing utility company. They could charge me $1500/month this summer and I can either pay it or move out. Even the liberals hate this utility company. I just hope they're aware that green energy is in large part to blame for it.

I have no doubt that your local utility company is unfairly ripping you off. But that's just good, old fashioned capitalism! Right? Aren't you all in for that?

Perhaps the easiest obvious solution to your problem is to install solar power on your home. You'd be surprised and pleased with how soon that paid for itself with power bill savings. Especially if your local utility raises its rates yet again. Why have you not considered that? I'm considering it for my home, but at the rate we generally use power, our power bills are already so low that in my case, I don't feel any great urgency about it. Besides that, the cost of solar cells is still coming down, so it might pay me to wait a bit longer. Much of the power we use here in my part of California already comes from renewable sources already anyway. My brother already has it and loves it, but he doesn't own his own solar power system and, in effect, leases it, thus his up front cost of installation was zero. Though he still pays a monthly fee for it, his monthly power bill is much less than what he was paying before. Still, I'm not quite decided that I want to do it the same way he did.

Another friend of mine who is a very well-to-do retired chiropractor, and has a farm out in the country with a very large house and workshop, spent thousands of dollars installing a very extensive solar power system for both house and several years ago. It has already paid for itself several times over in power bill savings. He has a negative power bill some months, with the utility company paying him a few dollars for the excess power he generates and adds to the grid. In a typical year, his net total power bill for the whole year is around 5 dollars or so. What's not to like about that?

I'm sure you already know about the Coal Museum in Kentucky that installed solar power to save money on electricity.

[_Chap]

It shouldn't take a revolution to form our own county. [...]

Someone help me understand how an American who must have completed grade school can write that.

I mean, Americans only have a country because of what happened in 1776 (and thereafter), which is, I believe, commonly called a 'revolution', is it not?

[_ajax18]

Perhaps the easiest obvious solution to your problem is to install solar power on your home. You'd be surprised and pleased with how soon that paid for itself with power bill savings.

It rains a lot in LA Gunnar. Solar panels don't work as well as they do in the dry western US. Most of the utility bill has to do with wastewater. They literally charge us when it rains to keep up the sewers. Rain actually helped lower the electric bill during the summer by cooling things down. It's hard for the air conditioner to keep up with 105 degree heat when it's dry. But, they now charge you when it rains as a wastewater fee.

Some of friends did buy solar panels based on the governments promise to give half of the money back in a tax break. So instead of $25k, he'd pay $12,500k. Of course the government renegged on that.

[_Some Schmo]

Someone help me understand how an American who must have completed grade school can write that.

You assume too much.

[Guest]

Perhaps the easiest obvious solution to your problem is to install solar power on your home. You'd be surprised and pleased with how soon that paid for itself with power bill savings.

It rains a lot in LA Gunnar. Solar panels don't work as well as they do in the dry western US. Most of the utility bill has to do with wastewater. They literally charge us when it rains to keep up the sewers. Rain actually helped lower the electric bill during the summer by cooling things down. It's hard for the air conditioner to keep up with 105 degree heat when it's dry. But, they now charge you when it rains as a wastewater fee.

Some of friends did buy solar panels based on the governments promise to give half of the money back in a tax break. So instead of $25k, he'd pay $12,500k. Of course the government renegged on that.

Nonsense! I live in Northern California, and I assure you that Los Angeles does not get more rainfall than we do. In fact, most of the rainfall in California falls in the Northern half of the state. That's why we have huge aqueducts running from North to South to supply a large part of Southern California's water. You are either telling a bald-faced lie, or you are abysmally ignorant or misinformed. Besides that, even it were true that it rains more there, the sun still shines enough of the time to provide a significant cost savings to homeowners with solar panels installed. This is increasingly true even in some of the wettest areas of the U.S.A., let alone sunnier areas like those in the western part of the U.S.A., like California and Arizona.

Besides, what makes you an authority on what it is like in California? I thought you lived in West Virginia!

[_Some Schmo]

You are either telling a bald-faced lie, or you are abysmally ignorant or misinformed.

It's both.

Besides that, even it were true that it rains more there, the sun still shines enough of the time to provide a significant cost savings to homeowners with solar panels installed. This is true even in the wettest areas of the U.S.A., let alone sunnier areas like those in the western part of the U.S.A., like California and Arizona.

You have to understand that the average Trump supporter was persuaded to criticize solar and wind because they thought their TV would turn off when it was cloudy outside or the wind died down (not to mention "windmills cause cancer"). They're idiots. It's almost as though they've never heard of a battery before.

Of course, they think a snowball is evidence that climate change is a hoax, so we're talking insect level intellect here.

[_Jersey Girl]

It's hard for the air conditioner to keep up with 105 degree heat when it's dry.

105 degree heat and dry. A/C can't keep up. Lessee....searching......searching.....searching......searching.....

Wait. Oh yeah.

Evaporative cooler.

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[_Themis]

Ajax is a whiner 99.9% of the time. I would not take what he says seriously. Especially when it is anything the extreme right hates, like protecting the environment.