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Supreme Court Rules In Favor of Energy Conservation Program (yahoo.com)
mdsolar sends news that the U.S. Supreme Court has issued a 6-2 ruling in favor of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's ability to create incentives for conserving energy and reducing demand on the power grid at peak times.
The demand response program pays large electricity customers like retailers, schools and office buildings to reduce energy consumption on hot summer days and other times of peak demand. The reduction in power use means electric utilities don't need to turn on backup power plants, which cost more to run and boost electricity prices. ... The rule won wide praise from environmental groups because it curbed the need for utilities to build expensive and air-polluting power plants. The demand response program saved customers in the mid-Atlantic region nearly $12 billion in 2013, according to PJM Interconnection, which manages the wholesale power supply for all or part of 13 states. ... But the rule has meant millions in lost profits for utilities. Those companies argued that the program impermissibly targets retail customers.
The reduction in power use means electric utilities don't need to turn on backup power plants, which cost more to run and boost electricity prices
Have these people ever heard of a thing called "free market", where one can sell and buy? If the prices are too high, the stores and other places should feel them as well, and if the stores have made super great contracts (for the stores) with the energy companies, then its the companie's fault if they now have to pay the bill. The state regulating what should happen and what shouldn't happen is socialism. And I'm saying this while living in "socialist" europe.