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I just don't see your system working. If I have a stand-alone solar array, and I charge my car with it using none of your resources -- on what basis do you think you can tax me? Because you feel entitled to it?

Let me tell you about the fees/taxes from my municipal electricity provider, Austin Energy.

• Community Benefit Charge : This is a per kWh charge that provides "$1.72 per 1,000 kWh to fund utility bill discounts for low income customers", "93 cents per 1,000 kWh to maintain and power the streetlights and traffic signals in Austin and all communities served by Austin Energy." and "$2.89 per 1,000 kWh for energy efficiency programs". I'm not sure what the connection is between my electricity usage and helping low income customers but I can't help but think about the food I'm taking off someone's table every time I replace an incandescent bulb with a CFL.
• Code Compliance : No idea why this is on a utility bill, but there it is.
• Clean Community Fee : This isn't trash collection, that's a separate item. Undeveloped property owners with no utilities don't reap these benefits apparently.
• Transportation User Fee : It's assumed I have car and this is a road use tax. It's possible to get it waived by telling them I don't have a car. The good news is 4-car families pay the same amount I do.

I have no problem funding the services above but these are really hidden taxes that should be part of property taxes. My consumption is low enough(under 500kWh/month) that my actual electricity usage is less than 50% of my bill. The rest, taxes.

They have had this in Austin, Texas for about a decade now. If they ever offer a monthly discount, I'll sign up.

Austin Energy has a Power Partner Program where they install a special thermostat to your A/C that cycles power less often during peak summer usage.

-l

Old news. Southern California Edison has been offering the ability to do this for awhile by adding an external device on the outside compressor... http://www.sce.com/RebatesandSavings/Residential/_Heating+and+Cooling/SummerDiscountPlan/Details/default.htm

As others have noted, this is also done by other utility companies throughout the U.S. too. For instance, Austin Energy (in Texas) also offers a radio controlled thermostat program: http://www.austinenergy.com/Energy%20Efficiency/Programs/Power%20Partner/index.htm

Where I live (Austin, TX) the rate for residential is 3.55 per kWh, first 500 kWh and 6.02 per kWh, for all kWh over 500 kWh. According to this page we can use a rate of 1 calorie per 1 watt hour. According to the elliptical machine at the gym, I burn through about 1000 calories in the first hour of cardio. It's probably pretty safe to assume that we're going to use at least 500kWh, so we can figure at the premium scale.

That means that in an hour I could produce about 1kWh or energy for a grand total of $0.0602 worth of electricity. That's not very encouraging. That wouldn't even pay for the air conditioning to cool me down (I am like a furnace of passion and desire).

I suspect that if I really wanted to (and was less concerned about my health), I could probably burn through 2000 calories in 2.5-3 hours. If I did that every day for a month, that would still only be about $3.61 worth of electricity. I have a feeling that this will never be profitable from an electricity generation point of view.

-l

-l

Here in Austin, we've had the Green Choice Program available for a while. There's a huge farm of windmills out in west Texas by El Paso. I've driven past them--it's really amazing how many there are. I remember last summer getting a flier in the mail touting this program. They said that for a typical household that used 1000 kilowatt hours/month, it would cost about an additional $5 to know that all of your power came from these sustainable sources. I kept meaning to sign up but never got around to it.

After Katrina and Rita, I heard predictions that the price of natural gas (which is what most of the electricity is made with around here) was going to skyrocket. I figured that I'd better sign up for Green Choice immediately, because if the predictions were true, then Green Choice would be cheaper than regular energy. Plus, the Green Choice program locks in a 10 or 15 year contract with the energy providers, so the price doesn't go up.

I wish I had signed up, becuase come October it was too late and the program was full. Now if you look at the Green Choice site you'll see that Green Choice energy is in fact cheaper than regular energy, and they're having a drawing to sign up a relatively small number of additional customers.

I think this is fantastic--it's bound to cause expansion of wind and other sustainable energy production methods.

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watch funny commercials.

Here in Austin, we've had the Green Choice Program available for a while. There's a huge farm of windmills out in west Texas by El Paso. I've driven past them--it's really amazing how many there are. I remember last summer getting a flier in the mail touting this program. They said that for a typical household that used 1000 kilowatt hours/month, it would cost about an additional $5 to know that all of your power came from these sustainable sources. I kept meaning to sign up but never got around to it.

After Katrina and Rita, I heard predictions that the price of natural gas (which is what most of the electricity is made with around here) was going to skyrocket. I figured that I'd better sign up for Green Choice immediately, because if the predictions were true, then Green Choice would be cheaper than regular energy. Plus, the Green Choice program locks in a 10 or 15 year contract with the energy providers, so the price doesn't go up.

I wish I had signed up, becuase come October it was too late and the program was full. Now if you look at the Green Choice site you'll see that Green Choice energy is in fact cheaper than regular energy, and they're having a drawing to sign up a relatively small number of additional customers.

I think this is fantastic--it's bound to cause expansion of wind and other sustainable energy production methods.

---
watch funny commercials.

Austin, TX has a similar program. Excel does it in Colorado, too. If you believe in this stuff, put your money where your mouth is! It's just a few dollars.***

* OTOH, it sucks - they need more capacity, and I think wind is the cheapest new capacity they can build. So why am I subsidizing it? Oh well, if that's what it takes.

** Let's not get into the "dude, your house isn't powered by wind, all the electricity is mixed together" discussion - yes, I know. But if I use 700kWh/month, and I pay to put 700kWh/month of new wind power online, I will happily say that my house is wind powered.

*** Actually when I signed up in Austin, I got a -refund- because that was the summer when power was insanely expensive (thank you Enron!) and the wind generated power turned out to be -cheaper-!