Debate

We Welcome All Lively Debate.

Friday, December 10, 2010

Phillips Can Go Screw

So I made the mistake of going shopping with my wife today.  We just bought our first home 8 months ago, and didn't realize we would need a second mortgage for Christmas decorations alone.  But here's the thing our generation faces verses that of our parents.  Energy efficient lights.

I hate energy efficient lights.  They look stupid, you don't use them enough to realize any savings in energy, and they cost 25 times as much as their non efficient counterparts.  Look no further than the $23.98 (plus tax) I spent on 120 Phillips LED blubs.  I'll need to live until I'm 98 to realize my savings. By which point those lights won't be efficient enough, and I'll need to spend 250,000 yuan to get new ones.

It's probably the #1 reason I hate the green movement so much.  It's not that I don't care (I don't by the way), it's that I can't afford to care. I have an energy efficient air conditioner - in Tampa's summer months that equates to about $12 in savings off our $300 electric bill monthly.  If cap and trade passes, it'll be $12 off my $600 electric bill, which I won't be able to pay because that's what it will cost to fill up my gas tank.

The failure of the government imposing energy efficiency, as I've stated in the past, is that it fails to sell it properly.  Sure I want less dependency of foreign oil, but I need to be able to afford it.  Energy efficient products are more expensive, and the savings don't outweigh the initial cost.  You want to sell it better?  Have the price per kilowatt hour decrease for someone who has an energy efficient a/c unit, not just give em $1,500 off their $8,000 unit.

If you think about it, cap and trade is the cruelest trick around.  The left gets a boner trying to tax the rich more, yet they want to pass a bill in which the intention is to make non-green products so costly, we'll stop using them.  The irony is that the rich can afford it, your average American cannot.  The bill doesn't promote green behavior, it doesn't provide an alternative, and it targets needs.  Some bill.

My brother used a quote today "it is so cold out I saw a lawyer with his hands in his own pockets."  I think he meant Obama.

No comments:

Post a Comment