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>Well, it isn't the only thing that's required. What is also required is the alternative energy products to be available to consumers at attractive prices. And
by throwaway0a5e 5y ago
>Well, it isn't the only thing that's required. What is also required is the alternative energy products to be available to consumers at attractive prices.
And before any wise ass says the solution is "just" to tax dirty energy I would like to remind everyone to stop projecting stupidity and apathy onto the general public. A couple percent here and there to incentive things at the margin may fly but if their energy bills double they're not gonna just roll over and take it. At the next opportunity they'll vote you out of office because that is the more direct and more effective way of solving their immediate problem of financial hardship.
- drekk 5y agoYou could just nationalize these inefficient plutocratic utilities and provide free renewable energy, but that's communism I don't know why the answer is always to make the serfs pay more when a more attractive and simple solution would be, I don't know, not having private jets and fossil fuel subsidies and ...
- inglor_cz 5y agoEven the kibbutzim had to introduce energy meters in their semi-utopian communities, because with no personal interest in keeping their bills low, some people would just waste communal energy. There isn't any personal incentive not to waste a free resource, save individual conscientiousness, which many people score low upon.
- nradov 5y agoSo what are you proposing exactly? Confiscate private aircraft? Force everyone to ride the bus?
- throwaway0a5e 5y ago> You could just nationalize these inefficient plutocratic utilities and provide free renewable energy, but that's communism This is a joke right? Using other people's money doesn't make it free. You have to pay for it with taxes. Whether it's government or private is mostly tangential to cost. It's not like municipalities with utility co-ops pay tons more or less. The differences seem to mostly be around what the accountability looks like when the utility inevitably screws up (Flint, PG&E, etc, etc).
- sokoloff 5y agoThose fossil fuel subsidies are what's making the serfs (your word) pay less for energy than otherwise; removing them would increase the price of fossil fuels.
- Dylan16807 5y agoIf you want the super simple version that doesn't hurt wallets, then tax dirty energy but give the money back to people, evenly divided per-capita.