Green Dreams Come True In California
A strange deal is in the works in California. Between 2000 and 2001, utility companies in California overcharged nearly $9 billion, withheld energy, dove up rates and caused rolling blackouts, California officials claim. The utility company will get away with a $120 million slap on the wrist. What’s more, the money will be invested into selling more electric power.
NRG Energy Inc. agreed to pay a $120 million settlement that will fund electric car charging stations across California, Associated Press reports. The money will be used to build at least 200 public fast-charging stations, and another 10,000 plug-in units at 1,000 locations in the San Francisco Bay Area, the San Joaquin Valley, the Los Angeles basin and San Diego County, Gov. Jerry Brown said yesterday.
Use of the fast-charging stations will not be free. Consumers will be able to pay for monthly subscriptions or pay as they go. The price of the monthly subscriptions has not yet been set. The pay-as-you-go price will be between $10 and $15 per use, an NRG spokesman said. Overcharging customers seems to be alive and well.
Only $20 million will go toward reducing rates for utility customers, says the San Francisco Chronicle.
Nissan likes the agreement, what with 40 percent of the 11,000 Leafs sold in the U.S. having California tags. John O’Dell, senior green car editor at Edmunds.com, is one of the California Leaf owners, but he doesn’t get around much. “I liken the home charger to kind of a tether,” O’Dell. “Without public charging, I’ve basically got a 35-mile leash on my car.”
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Sounds to me like they have about $8,880,000,000 in free electric charges to give out before they should be charging jack squat diddly to anyone in CA.
It might be conducive to actually try to understand what happened here twelve years ago instead of authoring typical internet style one liners. It was complicated and consisted of layers of complex issues going on all at the same time, including the Enron debacle. You can start here for a general synopsis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_electricity_crisis TTAC is becoming more and more like the 'Mike Daisey of automotive journalism.'
"Between 2000 and 2001, utility companies in California overcharged nearly $9 billion, withheld energy, dove up rates and caused rolling blackouts, California officials claim. "California officials claim. " ? ? ? ? ? That is a nice weasel wording there at the end of that statement. I read somewhere that Enron was in on the rip off, attempting to avoid its inevitable collapse. I want to hear some right wingers defend that situation. Seems the energy industry barons got away with some cool billions and got a token 120 million dollar slap on the wrist. This is corporate syndicate criminal theft and extortion. How does this differ from "organized crime" like the Mafia ???
Dear Herm, An "appropriate government expense", you say. That means MY expense. Ugh, just ugh. If I could, I would murder the taxpayer subsidized electric car in the drawing room with the candlestick holder.