PSNH invites electric customers to pay for more than they use

[NHSparky]

Coming to an electric bill/utility near you!!!

PSNH invites electric customers to pay for more than they use

LINK

By Elizabeth Dinan
edinan@seacoastonline.com
May 16, 2010 2:00 AM

(excerpt)

Public Service of New Hampshire is inviting its electric ratepayers to pay more than the cost of their monthly electricity usage, with their volunteer contributions designated for "development of renewable energy projects."

Announced late last month, the "PSNH Earth Smart Green Rate" program asks its electricity consumers to opt in and pay 25 percent, 50 percent, or 100 percent more than the actual cost of the electricity they used. The "contributions will help create a market for renewable energy and reduce dependence on fossil fuels," according to PSNH.

"In addition, it's estimated that the average Green Rate customer will take 1,600 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the environment annually, which means the impact of memberships will be both immediate and meaningful," PSNH announced.

Customers who opt in will receive bumper stickers announcing their participation, in addition to an annual statement reporting how their donations equate to carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere, said Matt Chagnon, a PSNH spokesman.

Chagnon said he has not yet opted in himself, adding, "I have to ask my wife."

The PSNH spokesman said 100 percent of the money donated by customers who sign up to pay more will be used to purchase Renewable Energy Certificates, also known as RECs. The RECs will be purchased from New England renewable energy producers, none of which have yet been identified, he said.

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Yeah, I expect the bucks to just start rolling in any second now.

Expect a lot more than this if Cap and Tax is passed...

ETA:  Adding link to actual PSNH webpage:

PSNH Link

[JohnnyReb]

,,,and the bumper stickers will say

I'M NOT WITH STUPID
     I AM STUPID

[zeitgeist]

Sorry Sparky, I am only able to send some healing white light at this time. (Unless I take the pennies out of the fuse box and send them in.)  Bet all the former Clamshell Alliance folk can't wait to dump their trust funds into this efforless effort at being more PC than the next guy.  




BTW.
I can hardly wait for the fools here in P_town to demand authentic "Gas Lights" on all city streets. This electricity stuff is so twentieth century. We are so about the Victorian Era here in recreated P-town. Maybe Dizzy Dinan can lead the charge, and, while we're at, it lets get rid of the cops tazers and give 'em back their rubber hoses.  She might like that too.

[NHSparky]

zeit--I'll do you one better--a recent LTE from the Portsmouth Pravda:

LINK

Opinion
May 13, 2010 2:00 AM
May 8 — To the Editor:

In his criticism of Rep. Rich DiPentima's opinion that the ongoing oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico means that we should halt all drilling offshore, Scott McPherson accuses Mr. DiPentima of wanting to "turn back the clock to the Dark Ages."

Does it occur to Mr. McPherson that it is oil technology itself that is of the past, the "Dark Ages?"

Our environment, our health, the planet's health, can no longer afford such a pollution-laden, primitive technology. The future belongs to the "green" technologies — wind, solar, geo-thermal, etc. The sooner all of us realize this, the sooner our government invests even more in these technologies, the better off we will all be.

Larry Etscovitz

Kittery, Maine

Someone oughta ask Larry how well those wind turbines are doing up in Saco and Kittery.

[zeitgeist]

zeit--I'll do you one better--a recent LTE from the Portsmouth Pravda:

LINK

Someone oughta ask Larry how well those wind turbines are doing up in Saco and Kittery.

You've spotted quite a pair of red spotted wack-a-doodles here Sparky.  Google either for a good laugh, they are frequent crazy contribuitors to the op ed pages. 

There has been so much dissapointment with wind power I haven't kept track of it all.  Suffice to say the little windmill that couldn't in Kittery lost value faster than a new Caddy driven off the lot.  $ucks to be them I guess.

I will be delighted to see Rep. Rich DiPentima replaced, maybe even more so than Carol Che-poser!!  He seems like a real Coca Cola nozzle in his op eds if you know what I mean.

[zeitgeist]

,,,and the bumper stickers will say

I'M NOT WITH STUPID
     I AM STUPID

Or
 
Money can't buy brains

[The Village Idiot]

If they pass Cap N Tax, this becomes mandatory

[Wineslob]

Damn the "greenie" stupidity continues.

Why they continue to ignore the problems with wind is beyond me.

Given the scope of today’s operations and maintenance challenges, owner-operators, component suppliers and manufacturers have no incentive to reveal component failure data because the problems are so widespread. Revealing this data will dampen enthusiasm for wind power, which now has widespread public and policy support

As one large wind turbine fleet manager bluntly stated, “We have the data on O&M costs, but we don’t even share it with the manufacturers. I’ve seen their data, and it is all wrong. The problems are way, way worse than they realize. If you keep a turbine long enough, it will fail.”

The majority of those interviewed said larger project operations and maintenance costs range from one to 2.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to an early estimate by the largest U.S. manufacturer of just .5 cents per kilowatt-hour. At 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, operations and maintenance costs are roughly equal to the federal production tax credit offered in the United States as a subsidy to make wind cost-competitive.

http://blog.cleantechies.com/2010/03/05/wind-power-upkeep-and-opportunities/

And yet up here they still bow at the alter of wind/carbon credit altar. Yes.................follow the money.

According to information from Pattern Energy, the owner of the wind farm, the electricity produced annually by the wind turbines at Hatchet Ridge will offset more than 80,000 tons of CO2 released into the atmosphere, or the equivalent of 12,000 cars per year, and will conserve 34,204,470 gallons of water each year that would normally be consumed by traditional methods of conventional generation.

http://anewscafe.com/2010/05/22/wind-turbine-parts-moving-to-hatchet-ridge/


I want these idiots to tell me what 12000 people will QUIT using their cars?

Tell me you morans, just HOW is water consumed by hydro plants?


Yet the enviro-weeines just lap this crap up.

[Chris_]

The TVA is doing something similar.

Green Power Switch is sold to residential consumers in 150-kilowatt-hour blocks (about 12 percent of a typical household’s monthly energy use). Each block adds $4 to the customer’s monthly power bills. Consumers may buy as many blocks as they like. In other parts of the country, residential consumers who participate in green power programs pay an extra $2 to $10 per month for green power. Green Power Switch is also marketed to commercial and industrial consumers, who are asked to buy blocks based on the amount of energy they use.

http://www.tva.gov/greenpowerswitch/green_mainfaq.htm

[zeitgeist]

The TVA is doing something similar.
http://www.tva.gov/greenpowerswitch/green_mainfaq.htm

The PPH seldom gets anything right sometimes by accident sometimes by design, check this one:

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20100524-OPINION-5240317

Opinion
May 24, 2010 2:00 AM
May 18 — To the Editor:

I take issue with several misconceptions about the EarthSmart Green Rate program, as reported in your May 16 article, "PSNH invites electric customers to pay for more than they use."

The article failed to report that all of New Hampshire's regulated electric utilities, including PSNH, are required by state law to offer customers an optional renewable energy rate. The numerous sponsors of HB 395 (2009) included, from the Seacoast; Sen. Martha Fuller Clark (Portsmouth), Rep. David Borden (New Castle), and Sen. Amanda Merrill (Durham). The policy makers recognized that renewable energy projects cannot proceed absent a public subsidy, and that some citizens are willing to directly pay to support such projects.

Significantly, the article incorrectly reports that PSNH customers choosing the Green Rate would pay "25 percent, 50 percent, or 100 percent more than the actual cost of the electricity they used ...." implying that a customer choosing the 100 percent option would double his or her bill. In actuality, for a residential customer using 500 kilowatt-hours in a month, the 25 percent and 100 percent Green Rate option would add $4.42 and $17.66, respectively.

While all PSNH customers benefit from the company's own renewable energy generation facilities, and our participation in New Hampshire's Renewable Portfolio Standard, we have received a number of requests from both residential and business customers who wish to directly support new sources of renewable energy. The EarthSmart Green Rate provides those customers with that opportunity. The choice is entirely theirs.

Martin Murray

PSNH, Manches

I usually read the PPH on the john for the cathartic value then take the bag it comes in to walk the beagle.  Thus the bag is filled with crap coming and going.

[thundley4]

I don't get this idea of paying more for "green energy" from the electric company. It's stupid. It's just to make people feel better about themselves. The companies aren't going to lower the rates for anyone else.

[Wineslob]

I don't get this idea of paying more for "green energy" from the electric company. It's stupid. It's just to make people feel better about themselves. The companies aren't going to lower the rates for anyone else.

It's nothing more than a voluntary subsidy. Green energy is a financial loser.

[thundley4]

It's nothing more than a voluntary subsidy. Green energy is a financial loser.

That's kind of my point. They aren't going to transmit the "green energy' only to those paying extra for it. The cost of that energy has already been calculated into the base rate that everyone pays, so this is a scam to make some people feel good, and make a little more money for the power company.

[NHSparky]

I smell a LTE coming.

[The Village Idiot]

That's kind of my point. They aren't going to transmit the "green energy' only to those paying extra for it. The cost of that energy has already been calculated into the base rate that everyone pays, so this is a scam to make some people feel good, and make a little more money for the power company.

But if people don't "volunteer" you expect they'll want to make it mandatory

[JohnnyReb]

But if people don't "volunteer" you expect they'll want to make it mandatory

The Public Utilities Commission, or whatever they call it up there, will grant them rate increases to more than cover the cost of renewable (BS wind farms) energy cost........same as making it mandatory.