Don't Get Shockleyed

El Paso Electric Company - not exactly the future

Someone recently sent me a link to Six ways oil and gas drilling is bad news for the environment by the Wilderness Society. It's an easy read with some graphic images. In fact, just scrolling through the images will sicken you enough. The point sticks that we (our community, nation, world) need to switch fast to cleaner energy sources.

The need to switch is just one more reason to oppose El Paso Electric Company's rate hike proposals and their attempt to destroy the rooftop solar industry. EPEC wants you to pay for their business model based on the past and not on the future. You pay for their "clean" natural gas power stations. (Just remember how devastatingly unclean producing that gas is. Scroll through those pictures again.) You pay for their mostly idle power stations. Demand has gone down. We really do have more energy efficient homes and appliances. You pay for their squashing the future of rooftop solar technology which, in time, will become affordable to all.

In fact, the day will come (soon I believe) when the ability of a single solar home to store power for use at night will be convenient and cheap. Solar panels and batteries will become fixtures in our homes just as vacuum cleaners and smart TVs are. 

El Pasoans should be able to invest their money in making their homes more energy efficient not in making EPEC CEO Tom Shockley richer. Just look at his salary and bonus history. Wow! And he wants to raise your rates!

Don't get Shockleyed by El Paso Electric. Oppose the rate hikes.