Water Again

Still Easy To Waste

Back before I could spell "litre" (apparently) I asked this question. Still asking, by the way . . .

A large proportion of the Aussie population have an energy provider that provides an online account and usage tracking page. This is a pretty under-used facility, because data and information equals power. No, not energy, just the power to monitor your household's energy usage and adapt / alter / test and swing your energy usage to your advantage. 

According to an industry insider I hear a rumour that there are ways to monitor that direct off the meter using - I don't know exactly, not that power monitor thing that we keep getting bombarded with spam to have installed for free, but something already in the meters. 

Before I drop this sidetrack, let me just say that using our provider's account usage tracking, we worked out that leaving the AC on overnight at a reduced setting and then increasing it by day was cheaper than turning it off and having to recover all the thermal losses. And that our hot water system is one of the first things I'd speak to the landlord about if there was a chance... Three bucks a day, over a quarter of our bill... 

I reckon one reason our 'smart meters' aren't quite smart enough to allow us to access them via wifi and have an instant read of our power consumption is because if we had such fine-grained information we could use a LOT less energy, and then where would those greedy sons-of-hogs-at-the-trough be? 

Now Back To The Question

Which is: Why can't we have smart water meters? They can be powered by the flow of water when you turn on a tap, and would provide critical information for households wanting to save money - and more importantly, water. 

It almost seems as if we're not allowed the tools to resist consumerism, doesn't it? As if the destruction of the planet IS the point, instead of the saving of it. 

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You may have seen here and there that I'm really really into doing something about - everything - that's going on around the world in the areas of climate change, waste accumulation, fossil fuel pollution and its companion, decarbonisation, renewable and sustainable energy, small scale recycling, and letting you and everyone else that I can reach know about all these things. You can help by sharing the heck out of my articles like this because the more people see it the more people will talk about it and the more people talk about it the more people will DO SOMETHING about it - be that email their local government member, email a CEO like the CEO of AGL and tell them you don't want any more of their pollution and greed, sign petitions, and maybe go to a demonstration to let the whole world know how they feel.

Heck, they might even read about plastic recycling and do guerilla plastic recycling at home. . . Or recycle their food waste into their vegetable garden. All sorts of anarchy could result. 

And all it takes is for you to share the link to this article on your favourite social network, or text it to a friend. . . Or even donating so that I can keep the servers running and domain names paid for with some of your money instead always my pension. . .  Not kidding, this costs me hundreds every year. And I pay it out of a pension that was recognised as being well below the poverty line 20 years ago and has gone backwards since then. I could really do with the help. 

So yes, please share this article and my others like it, go to my News Stand to see all my other posts and share links to the News Stand and any articles you found interesting, and if you can, donate here or here and find out here why it's important. Or subscribe to my once a week newsletter and stay in the loop. Thank you for being here and reading.

Daddy, Why Did Energy Prices Crash The Economy?

Rabbits, Son, Too Many Rabbits.

In China Australia, and most of the planet, apparently.

Did you know that rabbits aren't rodents? They're in a different class, Lagomorpha Leporidae. They breed indiscriminately, and can devastate ecosystems and even whole countries. And everyone looks at any individual bunny and says things like "Naaaww cute!"

Only a small subset of humanity looks at them and sees the wholesale destruction of plant life (soon followed by the animal life that depended on those plants for their own survival) and soil erosion that those cute bunnies cause.

And only another small subset of humanity looks at them and says "Oh wow I'm hungry and eating these things actually helps the environment so - here bunny bunny bunny. . . "

(The last paragraph actually refers to a recent post by Extinction Rebellion where they playfully (?) suggested that eating one ultra-rich person would make a bigger dent in global warming than stopping your meat consumption and use of petrol-engined vehicles for the rest of your life. Here bunny bunny . . . 😼)

I digress now to this:

Original Post and Commentary Re-post and this selected comment from the OP:

Cr Xxxx Xxxx (long string of identifying info omitted) 

"It’s a shame (region omitted for de-identification purposes) wasn’t included. Negotiations would have been interesting and I do miss playing with the big guys."

That was the entire comment. "Everyone else is tapping Oxley over and we're missing out. All us little people - on whom the solar farm is going to have minimal to zero impact - are missing out on the huge profits to be made from renewable energy." and somewhere in there's a subtext the Councillor wasn't expressing: "And we're gonna need some extra money to keep up with rising energy prices. Why are energy companies so greedy? Sheesh. . ."

Seems a shame that someone considers it to be "playing with the big guys" when what they mean is "doing over everyone in Australia." Seems a pity that this person considers themselves to be one of the  "little guys." Seems like people really are so greedy and petty, and base their entire lives on greed and feeling self-important.

What price EVs Now?

Seems the energy companies to are smelling blood in the water. All these people who are going to want to charge their EVs because they want to save the environment! "The least we can do is CASH IN, GUYS!  Oh and yeah, of course raising electricity prices is going to run people that just want to air condition their homes broke but - it's income. Sheesh..."

Which in turn will remove the perceived advantages of EVs as far as travel costs are concerned, and so slow EV adoption. "But in case anyone thinks we're not serious about getting you all to switch, returning the petrol excise again and raising the price of oil. What? You want some incentives? Tough luck, no carrots, just all stick. Use some of the pay rises that aren't coming through, or better yet, trade those veggies that the farmers paid you in lieu of money. If you can find a dealership that would be as stupid as you and get paid in barter. Sheesh. . ."

So the story is that the Aussie government reduced the amount of petrol excise (tariff) because oil companies raised the price of oil because Putin and Ukraine and you know anything at all is an excuse for the oil companies to screw their customers a bit more before the inevitable collapse of their business as demand for oil dries up. They may as well collapse with rich CEOs and management, hey?

In effect the oil companies put prices up so high that the Australian government was paying them for - for - well, for being total arseholes. And now that the excise will be put back on in full again, the oil companies will respond by putting prices up even more. Energy companies will put their prices up because they've installed solar farms that will amortise their costs in under a year but prices will stay high because when you screwing a population you may as well just keep going rather than not buying that extra mansion and the fleet of fancy top-end cars. Don't stop until the pitchforks come out!

A Better Approach

. . . might have been to subsidise the heck out of EVs, but the previous government was ideologically opposed to doing anything for their own populace that might affect their cosy snuggly relationships with big corporations, and so they put the money where it would do the least amount of good overall, leave the cause of EVs stranded for as long as possible, and (in case they didn't survive the election which I'm pretty sure they knew they couldn't, given that the populace has been better informed in the last few years than ever before) make it a hassle for the subsequent government to recover from.

So the Morrison government created as much confusion and difficulty as possible so their good buddies could continue to screw us, and of course they ALL piled in and did just that. 

I urge you all to consider that, the next time any public issue comes up that involves giving any of these bastards a break, and instead, let's keep the bastards honest whether they want to or not. Push them into it, hard. They truly deserve it. 

So the government now has unwound a load of fees for electric vehicles to speed up people being able to afford them. The fuel companies (and their close associates the energy sector) are combining to keep people to broke to think about an EV just yet, by a combination of energy related costs. 

What should happen is that instead of paying money into propping up the greed of the oil companies again, the government should instead raise all fees on internal combustion engined vehicles (ICEVs) to prohibitive levels except for tradespeople and agricultural use, and offer large subsidies to people IF they sell their ICEV at the same time. Alter the vehicle registration structure such that ICEVs become expensive to transfer the registrations of, and place the majority of that burden on the purchaser. 

This'll make it cheaper and easier buy an EV than to buy an ICEV. For truly low-income people who require a vehicle and need to purchase second-hand. 

Look - I'm not a policy-maker or someone with political aspirations - I just don't want to see a bunch of wealthy entitled utter bastards make themselves even more rich off the disaster they've created. So I'm asking you to get activated. Get angry. Don't let some other utter arsehole's desire for wealth make your life poorer for it, nor the lives of the generation growing up right now. Get out there and keep those bastards honest! 

I can't

I can't let this article end without urging you to action. It's never been more needed than it is right now, and right now we have governments that are beginning to sense which way the wind's blowing and willing to listen.

You may have seen here and there that I'm really really into doing something about - everything - that's going on around the world in the areas of climate change, waste accumulation, fossil fuel pollution and its companion, decarbonisation, about renewable and sustainable energy, small scale recycling, and letting you and everyone else that I can reach know about all these things. 

You can help by sharing the heck out of my articles like this because the more people see it the more people will talk about it and the more people talk about it the more people will DO SOMETHING about it - be that email their local government member, email a CEO like the CEO of AGL and tell them you don't want any more of their pollution and greed, sign petitions, and maybe go to a demonstration to let the whole world know how they feel.

Heck, they might even read about plastic recycling and do guerilla plastic recycling at home. Or recycle their food waste into their vegetable garden. All sorts of anarchy could result. . .

And all it takes is for you to share the link to this article on your favourite social network, or text it to a friend. . . Or even donating so that I can keep the servers running and domain names paid for with some of your money instead always my pension. . .  Not kidding, this costs me hundreds every year. And I pay it out of a pension that was recognised as being well below the poverty line 20 years ago and has gone backwards since then. I could really do with the help. 

And Actually:

I have a thing to add, weeks after starting this article. 

Regarding energy pricing:  OT1H, but then OTOH - One says that renewable energy is in for a "billion dollar shock" and tries to say there'll be expense after expense 'upgrading' things. The second says that energy companies that are using renewables are seeing billions of windfall profits from the cheap energy.  WTF?

Either there are ‘billion dollar windfalls’ and lower prices or there’s billion dollar bullshit about the cost of ‘wires’. What a load of shit, I say. 

Which is it?

And don't let's forget that I said energy companies are going milk the shit out of everything in order to make money while they can still pretend their bullshit is relevant or even true. Pretty soon they're going to have to face the fact that they're just going to become purveyors of wires, and every person and their dog will be able to generate enough energy to cut those wires and give them the finger. So yeah, they're going to gouge every cent they can before the party's over. 

Anyway - back to the feeding frenzy . . .

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So yes, please share this article and my other posts on other blogs, go to my News Stand to see all my other posts. Share links to the News Stand and any articles you found interesting, and if you can, donate here or here and find out here why it's important. Or subscribe to my once a week newsletter and stay in the loop. Thank you for being here and reading.