Nothing's purely green

[joymongerjim]

Green isn't a primary color, and it isn't a primary cultural meme. It's a little bit blue, with some yellow, and it goes against everything "natural" to the Dominator scheme.

Smart meters were supposed to be a way for the power companies to comply with the public mandate for a "smart grid" -- an electrical system that is efficient and can respond to varying conditions of supply and demand.

But smart meters were imposed on the American public with no scrutiny from regulators. The radiation standards were established decades ago, under the assumption that as long as heating wasn't the result, pretty much any sort of radiation was OK. The world we live in has changed a lot since the days when those standards were established, and there's been a lot of money behind keeping those outdated standards unchallenged.

I refused to allow the power company to install smart meters at my two properties, and they informed me that my electrical bill would more than triple as a result! When I refused, month after month, to pay the "opt-out" fees (and the resulting "late charges"), they cut me off. I no longer pay any fees to the power company, and they no longer provide me any electricity.

I'm adapting to off-grid living by running a fossil-fueled generator a few hours each day, to keep my computer alive so I can shop for the solar energy system that will make me energy-independent. My next 20 years worth of power bills are coming due very soon, so I can install a permanent system that will cost nothing over that span of time.

Profits will be going to the manufacturers of the solar panels, batteries, the charge controller and inverter/charger, and all the peripheral components that will enable, manage and monitor the system -- and free me from supporting the corporate system (which somehow controls even the Public Utility Commission) that provides the electrical network.

But nothing is totally green. The money I've diverted from the power company to the renewable energy industry will pass through the hands of bankers and show up in the GNP; the solar equipment will be shipped by truck, consuming fossil fuels. With each breath, I'm exhaling a greenhouse gas ....