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cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/8503579
seize the means of production
Ever since I learned that pretty much all utilities are publicly-traded stocks on the stock market as for-profit companies that wealthy mfs talk about "diversifying their portfolio" with "in the energy sector" I've been so disturbed.
The idea that utilities are for-profit is just so f***ed up and deranged.
The fact that most companies are for profit is deranged. Utilities are necessary for day to day life, they go hand in hand with having a roof over your head in my book. Real estate should also be non-profit. Insurance should also be non-profit, put the excess money to use by fixing the things that are insured. Hospitals/medical anything should be non-profit. Food and water should be non-profit. Internet connectivity should be non-profit as well.
Give back to the citizens.
Not all at all. Lots of utilities are Consumer Cooperatives. Lots of people working at those cooperatives don't even know that consumer and worker cooperatives are market socialist and tend to be conservative which annoys the heck out of me.
Nitpick: eminent domain is not the means for publicizing a company, that's for land for public works
Why not just use electric stove/heater/whatever? That way you're using something that's both cleaner, safer, and make more sense to nationalise if it haven't.
For stoves, inductions are becoming the de-facto gold standard.
Don't give the gas propagandists the time of day on this issue - gas stoves have been strategically pushed as an effort to keep gas infrastructure installed across the U.S by the gas lobby.
Just got an induction stove and I can't even begin to communicate how much better it is than gas and especially old style electric stoves.
Although electric is great and can be self generated by things like solar panels.
Not everyone an afford to convert a working appliance to an electric powered version. If I were to replace my boiler today for example I'd have to pay about $40,000-$60,000 USD for parts and labor. Eventually I will but I'll have to plan and budget for it.
There is also something to be said about reducing the waste of switching out working appliances for different fuel sources. If the goal is the help the environment, then it might be more beneficial to use the appliance until it reaches end of life. Especially of the components are hazardous or not easily recyclable.
If something needs to be replaced, then we can advocate for electric appliances. But it's wasteful and perhaps unreasonable to replace something that is in great condition and has years of life left in it.
Also, there could still be legitimate uses for natural gas like for a generator incase of power outages.
At the end of the day, the point of this post is simply that utility companies should be a service for the community and not run for profit.
If the goal is the help the environment, then it might be more beneficial to use the appliance until it reaches end of life.
This. Reminds me of the cash for βclunkersβ debacle that took plenty of perfectly good ICE used cars off the market.
At the end of the day, the point of this post is simply that utility companies should be a service for the community and not run for profit.
Especially this.
Fair point. Though my point here is swapping appliances is easier and better in every way than to nationalise a utility company.
But then i guess i also over-analysed a meme π
electricity is comically expensive compared to gas for heating, I understand that some places don't consistently get to -40 every winter, but many places do.
Heat pumps are popular in VT where it does go down to -40 somewhat regularly. Most places still have a backup heat for the really cold days - either wood stove and/or oil.
heat pumps are great and i love the idea, but for places where it gets really cold your right that backup heat is still required.
Iβm on oil (and a renter so itβs not like I have a choice) but a friend of mine is on a heat pump and loves it. She has backup heat too, a wood stove and I believe either heating oil or gas. But most of the time she runs the heat pump and the wood stove.
Fwiw, heat pumps are not comically expensive in operation. They also work in the north of Sweden, so I'm sure that any issues with low temperature operations have been hammered out by now.
I understand that installation can be prohibitively expensive in some markets still though, but this is a problem that can hopefully be addressed.
Sweden has some of the cheapest electricity in all of Europe thanks to all that hydro.
This year my final electric bill was ~ 25 c/kWh. Gas was ~ 8c/kWh (both after distribution costs, and funnily enough for electricity I pay amongst other things a fee to subsidize other people's solar panels' negative impact on the grid).
Not "comically expensive" but to be cost-effective a heat pump must average a COP of at least 3.1 (which is possible in most climates with a decent enough HP), so it's not yet a "jump on it first chance you get" kinda deal because it will take many years to recoup the initial investment. And people remember last year's winter where the electric costs were more than doubled; gas prices tend to fluctuate much less. This makes heat pumps even more of a very long term investment for people who can afford very large surprises in their power bill... Or who have excess PV generation capacity in the winter (that requires a very large house).
Gas is on the way out but all the political sabotage of electricity prices in Europe (nuclear phaseout, asinine financial regulations and fake competition with useless middlemen, misfiring PV legislation meaning PV owners are being subsidized by everyone else, etc.) means it will take a very long time before HP costs drop enough for people flock to replace their existing gas heater with a heat pump.
-40 sounds insane. There are very few major cities with such cold temperatures. Outside of such extreme locations, heat pumps are very competitive to gas heating if not simply cheaper.
Welcome to North Dakota friend. :(
Tbf, my city has a publicly owned utility company and it suuuuucks. Literally writing this comment on my phone during a 12 hour power outage during perfect weather.
I bet it's being deliberately underfunded and/or mismanaged to support an eventual attempt to privatize.
Deliberately underfunded or mismanaged, maybe. It's been like this since the 90s at least. But I don't think they need any intent for a buyout for it to suck. Afaik, there is zero interest from any private buyers for our utilities.
If I had to point to a specific failure, it's that the rates are set by city council, and raising them is wildly unpopular. Everyone who proposed it loses re-election. We have some of the cheapest power in the world but fat lot of good that does when it's not on.
How does that work? They still have to buy the power from someone, and those prices have increased. Or do they own their own power plant/turbine/whatever. Then they should sell the excess and subsidize their citizens.
They buy most power from TVA, the rate city council controls is the fixed rate markup they charge on top. Our power is $0.07/kwh by the time you pay for it.
If you wanna know what it looks like to have a city own the utilities and operate them for the public interest, one can look at Medicine Hat, Alberta.
I didn't know anything about this place, but being Alberta I had assumed that this would be a negative portrayal of government.
I was pleasantly surprised:
In 2021, Medicine Hat became the first city in Canada to achieve "functional zero" chronic homelessness, defined as three consecutive months where three or fewer individuals experienced chronic homelessness. They were able to achieve this due to their adoption of a Housing First policy to combat homelessness beginning in 2009.[13]
The entire nation of Finland is another great example of the government essentially eliminating homelessness (and in the process, creating super affordable public housing that isn't garbage).
What if my hat is already full of things that aren't medicine?
Nationalize this!
I had a gas stove once ands HATED cooking. Hated the smell and never felt safe.
yeah gas stoves are sketchy but if it's installed properly you should never have an issue. I prefer induction, fuck coil stoves. i have a electric coil stove and i fucking hate it.
coil stoves are okay provided they have glass tops, i have a coil stove with fucking cast iron plates on it which are IMPOSSIBLE to clean and they stay hot for ages after i'm done cooking..
still perfectly fine to cook with, though. it's just that anything else is even better.
means of consumption?
Coherent and good!