December 24, 2008

PGE vs. Cleantech

by Environmental Building Strategies in Energy, Renewable Energy 644 Comments

So I’ve been wanting to write about this for a while – its a bit off the green building subject but it resonates well within the community.

Why can’t you check a box on your electric bill from PGE saying that you want to buy power only from clean sources. The box could have a number inside it saying something like Normal – $63.56 and another box that says – Cleantech $95.35.

It would be a way to inform the public about the currently additional costs of converting to clean without telling them to buy a REC which you never actually see. PGE is just monopolizing the situation they have and slowing the process even though they claim to be such a proponent of renewable.

I truly believe they are only doing this push for sustainability and renewable tech because the govt has mandated it on them. Coal is still the cheapest and at the end of the day the idea is to be profitable. Wouldn’t it make sense fiscally (which is usually all anyone ever cares about) to continue with cheap energy sources? However someone should mention the case for PGE where they have somehow found this sense of social and environmental stewardship where they should be commended for their actions. Kinda like Chevron in that sense with their ridiculously convincing human energy commercials. Hell they almost had me fooled.

But this is getting off topic – if the government and municipalities would push for an idea like this then we could maybe get somewhere. At a minimum you would find out where the demand is. Look at the Prius if you think this idea of paying more for clean is ludicrous. The Prius and other Hybrid’s out there do not make sense fiscally. Their payback is in the 10 year range at $3 dollars a gallon (a friend did a econometric analysis if you are interested in the data) and for those who don’t know, the batteries need to be replaced at 100,000 miles. The case for a Hybrid starts making sense when gas gets closer to $10 a gallon.

So with that said, I can’t go two minutes in California without seeing a Prius. It has the ability to work just the same with PGE and would blossom with the right government incentives.