Media #2
Here’s the article on the Peterborough Examiner Website. No pictures in the online version, but I’ll be grabbing a couple of the paper issues today. I’m pleased that they put in Jo’s quote about there being no incentives for people to try renewables as well as J.P.‘s line about the artificially low cost of hydro in this province. How can we convince people to conserve when power is nearly as cheap as water? The bill for fixing the hydro rate at 4.3¢/kwh is now in the hundreds of millions and will likely exceed a billion dollars by the end of the summer. I can’t help but think that money would be far better spent on education and grants for renewables. Get some solar panels up on some roofs and some good metering so that people are more aware of what they are using.
All of the attention in the media is around which part of the grid failed, where it broke, and how decrepit the whole transmission network has become. But there has been very little comment on how overloaded the system is, how all of the power the air conditioners, incandescent lights, and billboards are constantly drawing. Small amounts of conservation can add up to huge savings. If you are one the grid look around your house, your place of business, your community and ask yourself, “Did the failure start in Ohio, or did it start right here?”
I’d like to believe that articles like today’s will make a change but really I think we’re just a form of oddity, “Step right up, gaze in wonder at the people who live off grid.” Just another stop on the blackout media tour. I’d like to think that this blackout could be the start of a change but really I suspect that they’ll cobble the grid back together and life will return to normal. And now I’ve just learned that CHEX TV is on thier way out to do a story on us. It is going to be an interesting day.
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- August, 20, 2003