| reply to Harddrive
Re: [SNOW] Why not? said by Harddrive:I've come to the realization that this middle class/economic circle of death will never stop. It's too far gone now for a politician to do something about it that would kill his political future.
As long as the world bankers/corporate oligarchs run government decision-making, yes, we are doomed. The whole system will eventually collapse. One day, folks will lose faith in the inflated fiat currency. Weimar Republic all over again. A million Deutchmarks to buy a loaf of bread. We wallpapered our flat with Deutchmarks during the final months of the collapse. Then things got much worse. The youth were rioting and demanding economic equality (sound familar?), crime was rampant, and a certain person was making promises to fix everything and restore Germany's pride. Glad we got the heck out of there before the mass murders started.
Meanwhile, back here in the US, shades of history repeating again. I never thought I'd live to see it happen again.
Just trying to be self-sufficient here. Have the heating system wrapped up tighter than a drum. Oil vent dampers in both furnace and hot water heater. Pipes super insulated. Radiators that uses to cool off in 30 minutes now stay warm for 3 hours after the call for heat ends. House much more comfortable. Insulation has been upgraded during replacement of entire roof structure, so house holds the heat well now. If the town doesn't try to evict me from my land, things should be survivable through the coming mess.
Oh, still no utility power here. No sign of CL&P anywhere near here. They estimate Sunday restoration by 11PM. I'll be surprised if that is met. I'm planning to bill CL&P for all the gasoline I had to use because of their slow response. AT&T got my phone working 22 hours after I reported that outage. CL&P could learn a thing or two from AT&T. |
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 DrStrangeTechnically feasiblePremium
join:2001-07-23
West Hartford, CT
kudos:1 | Yes to many of those points. That's one possible future. I'm still hoping for a different one.
I like the concept of billing CL&P for gas as well. Instead of paying a fine as the politicians have threatened, they should be made to reimburse us for the cost of their greed-fueled incompetence. This has cost me several hundred dollars in gasoline alone. I haven't seen a CL&P truck in this end of town yet. All they've done is restore a few major streets and isolated locations being used as shelters. It's not like I'm out in the country, either. It's also not helping my opinion that other towns in the area have had power restored already, where they sustained every bit as much damage as we did.
For what it's worth: AT&T never went down here. My non-AT&T DSL has been rock-solid, as well. And as much as I love to hate them, Comcast cable is working here if you have a generator. Not sure about the HSI, since I don't have it. |
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 gregamy
join:2003-05-22
Middletown, CT
 ·Comcast
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| said by DrStrange:Instead of paying a fine as the politicians have threatened, they should be made to reimburse us for the cost of their greed-fueled incompetence. Be careful what you ask for. Remember, electricity is not a free market product; it's a managed utility, their profit margins are pretty much guaranteed. If you have legislators demand that CL&P maintain a year-round staff of repairmen at Kommie's desired ratio of two repairmen per customer, that are for most of the time sitting around getting pudgy, drinking coffee, and waiting for a natural disaster to strike, then it's not the "fat cat executives" that are going to pay for that service; we are. We can all certainly get what we want, we just don't want to pay for it.
Well, as Milton Friedman is credited for saying, "there's no such thing as a free lunch"...
GA |
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 KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2
·Comcast
| reply to Glenn
Wallyworld has City Owned Power. Your town is different from most of CT. Your city is running a socialist enterprise.
My idea would be to make each town responsible for their own lines/electricty. That way we do not have profit margins to worry about. |
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gregamy
join:2003-05-22
Middletown, CT | reply to orion940
Is it just me, or does anyone else think that Kommie possibly like Wallingford's city-owned electrical system? I've picked up a subtle hint here and there... LOL!!!
Pavlov was right... |
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KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 |  |
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KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
| reply to orion940
Wallingford Electric Division outshines the big boys in snowstorm aftermath
»www.myrecordjournal.com/wallingf···286.html |
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KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
| reply to orion940
»www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/busin···ure.html
Connecticut Light and Power cut its maintenance spending by 26 percent, from $130 million in 2008 to $96.5 million last year
Norwich, Conn., a city of 40,000, has owned its own electric utility, as well as those for sewage, gas and water, for 107 years. Norwich Public Utilities’ customers pay, on average, a bit less than Connecticut Light and Power’s. Yet after this past weekend’s snow dump, power was out for only about 450 of its 22,000 customers
It helps that the Norwich utilities are not slaves to the profit motive — though they hand 10 percent of gross revenue to the city. Last year, before paying this slice to the city, the electricity division made just a 3.6 percent operating profit margin on its $52.3 million of revenue. |
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Reviews:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to Kommie
said by Kommie:Wallyworld has City Owned Power. Your town is different from most of CT. Your city is running a socialist enterprise.
My idea would be to make each town responsible for their own lines/electricty. That way we do not have profit margins to worry about.
So every city will have to employ a number of workers to service the lines when something happens, and those workers would sit on their asses 99% of time. And when something this big happens, they will be overwhelmed anyway... |
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gregamy
join:2003-05-22
Middletown, CT Reviews:
·Comcast
·AT&T DSL Service
| reply to Kommie
said by Kommie:It helps that the Norwich utilities are not slaves to the profit motive... No, they're slaves to the public trough...LOL!
We're all slaves to someone, dude...at least I get to pick my Master...  |
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KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2
1 edit | reply to cowboyro
Correct and guess what some cities already do this, and it is working! |
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Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| said by Kommie:Correct ang guess what some cities already do this, and it is working!
I don't know about others, but I'd be pissed if my tax money were wasted on paying someone to sit for nothing. It would overall be a huge waste, since statistically such events happen once in a decade.
Still wouldn't prevent widespread outages if the transmission lines feeding the city are damaged. Hell, it would be way cheaper to buy everyone a generator... |
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KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 Reviews:
·Comcast
2 edits | Norwich Utilities is handing revenue back to the cities. How is money being wasted? They are not sitting around and doing nothing. In fact CLP is doing just that a private enterprise.
It wouldnt be cheaper. Wallingford and Norwich are profiting and giving it back to the town.
Downtime in Wallingford 1 day after Storm. Downtime in Farmington ongoing |
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 HarddriveProud American and Infidel since 1968.Premium
join:2000-09-20
Phone Room
kudos:2 | I live in Norwich and think that Norwich Public Utilities does a hell of a job. |
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Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to Kommie
What I could agree with is giving the in-city power lines to the city for management. The city could employ a contractor of its own choice on a need-to basis (either workers from the power co or from any other company that provides the service, including competing power companies). Problem is how do you *TAKE* assets of a company if the company doesn't want to give them away? |
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KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 | Eminent Domain. |
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| said by Kommie:Eminent Domain.
You're forgetting this isn't Cuba or North Korea. |
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KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 | reply to Kommie
Your right. This State used Eminent Domain on far simpler issues just ask any New Londoner. |
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gregamy
join:2003-05-22
Middletown, CT Reviews:
·Comcast
·AT&T DSL Service
| said by Kommie:Your right. This State used Eminent Domain on far simpler issues just ask any New Londoner.
You're not exactly bolstering your position with this...just sayin'... |
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KommiePremium
join:2003-05-13
united state
kudos:2 | How about the fact that electrification in the USA happened with public money ? |
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