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Tuesday July 15, 2008
Ottawa Hydro's "Smart" move on its customers
Is the "green" push nothing but a money-maker for gov't and biz?
Can't post much today because I have to be ready to shut down my computer at a moment's notice..
Ottawa Hydro notified me only yesterday that they are installing what they call "Smart Meters"
that will send to their offices by wireless not only my electricity
usage but the times of my usage. (I assume that means the meter readers will lose their jobs). And they will start billing me
according to three time periods - peak, mid-peak, and off peak.
They
have applied higher prices than I'm currently paying to the peak and
mid-peak times, and a lower price to the off-peak time. This is to
encourage me to reduce my energy consumption, they say, but it will
coincidentally make more money for them, and certainly a lot of money
has gone into the pockets of the marketers of the Smart Meters. Oh,
yes, the customer also has to cover that cost with an extra surcharge.
Ottawa Hydro claim their rates won't increase overall, since you can actually save money
if you only use energy during the off-peak hours, which is between 10
pm and 7 am. So if I can manage to stay up all night and sleep all day,
I'll be rolling in saved fees for service.
Are you getting the
impression that global warming and "shortages" are little more than
money makers for government and big business? Think of the extra money
government gets from raised gasoline prices. And the GST. Did Harper
reduce the GST by a pittance because he knew he could more than recoup
from price increases? Of course he did. He's an economist, don't you
know.
And you thought the Ontario Energy Savings Corp. was running a scam. Well, they were, but so it seems is everybody else who stands to make a buck in this New World.
How much of this "green" push
has to do with gouging the consumer and saving money for the
corporations? And don't forget those expensive lightbulbs you're
supposed to use, that contain mercury and don't last as long as they
say, and require special handling when being disposed of. Will we also
be charged for the luxury of having a nearby place that will accept
those used bulbs?
I
mentioned before that my landlord wants to outsource the laundry
facility to a commercial agency that uses microchipped "Smart Cards"
instead of coins or tokens. The corporation that operates my building
will save a ton of dollars on machines and repairs and maintenance, and
I will pay more per load, plus share with people I'll never see exactly
when I do my laundry, how often, how many loads, and which machine I
used - the cold wash or the hot wash.
Will
there come a time when they will use that information to force me to do
my laundry in the middle of the night, or if someone damages a machine
that I used last will the cops come a-knockin' on my door? I never
forget to empty the lint filter, but there's a first time for
everything, and there's a very irate tenant who has blood in his eye
for people who don't empty the filters. Will he complain to the agency
and get the company to see who used the machine last and go after them?
I'm probably not thinking of everything that could occur, but this is
plenty.
The detergent companies are
happy too because I have to buy special cold water soap which costs
more than stuff that works better in hot or warm water.
Going "green" could bring out the reptile in all of us. Maybe we'll all end up hiding under rocks during the daylight hours.
Needless
to say I will avoid the whole Smart Card thing by either going to a
coin laundry where there is a live attendant, or getting a small
apartment sized machine. But I can't avoid Ottawa Hyrdro's Smart
Meters, even if I am a bit of a night owl.
My driver's licence is up for
renewal. I'll have to find out whether or not they've microchipped
them. If so, I'll chuck that too. And when my Visa card comes up for
renewal in 2010, I know they'll be microchipping the replacement card,
so out with that as well. Then there's the bank. When will they chip
my debit card? We raisins ought to be demanding our pensions in cash.
Bless the money grubbers and the control freaks. May they receive everything they have earned.
yayacanada
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