Juneau's electricity crisis
| By Brittney - May 6th, 2008 at 12:31 pm EDT |
My sister and brother both live in Juneau, AK. A couple weeks ago, I got a call from my sister. You're never gonna believe this she said, but avalanches knocked out our power sources and our electric bills are increasing five-fold.
Just another reason to move back down to the lower 48, she ranted.
With electricity prices through the roof, Juneau is an amazing test case for what happens when energy costs skyrocket. Consumptive patterns do in fact change. Shocking. I know.
While Juneau is an extreme case because of its inaccessibility, it raises a critical question: how do we get average people to make different choices about reducing consumption without natural disasters as catalysts?
Just another reason to move back down to the lower 48, she ranted.
With electricity prices through the roof, Juneau is an amazing test case for what happens when energy costs skyrocket. Consumptive patterns do in fact change. Shocking. I know.
Stores, though open, went partially dark. Neon signs were switched off and vending machines unplugged. At home, residents of this former Gold Rush town began living a little bit like pioneers, dusting the snow off the grill, stringing clotheslines in the backyard and flicking off their TV sets. Within a week, electrical usage across town was down as much as 30 percent.
With oil prices reaching a record $120 a barrel, Alaska Electric Light and Power said customers might have to pay for an extra $25 million in diesel over the three months it would take to repair the lines. The utility warned that rates would probably leap from an average of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour to more than 50 cents, or about five times the 10.3 cents that is the national average.
While Juneau is an extreme case because of its inaccessibility, it raises a critical question: how do we get average people to make different choices about reducing consumption without natural disasters as catalysts?
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In some ways whether it's wars or maybe a drought if literally tens of millions of Americans were forced to drastically change their lifestyle that maybe not all that bad. At the same time I think they might learn that they better damn well pay attention to who they're voting for and bring out others who have not participated. Other than that not much is going to happen. Our government should be a player in all of this but that's not going to happen either.