🚀 go-pugleaf

Silas Warner wrote:
> Very true.  If PG&E were now in charge, consumers would be now
> complaining of three-times-larger gas bills.  The difference is
> that businesses can still operate with the thermostats turned
> down.

*Some* businesses can still operate without natural gas, or with less
natural gas, or can afford the cost of extremely expensive natural gas,
but many can not.  Conversely, some businsses can operate without
electricity, because they have backup power or because they can make due
with flashlights, calculators, etc.  

Similarly, many consumers have been hit far harder by the increase in
natural gas prices than by any proposed increase in electricity prices.  

There is simply no good reason to treat electricity radically
differently than other forms of energy.  If natural gas and oil prices
float, then so should electricity prices (especially when, as in
California, natural gas is used to produce the largest share of
electricity, and virtually all new capacity is going to be natural gas).

> I can't think of a business that
> can run without electricity in the 21st century.

Many bars and restuarants can operate with electricity.  Some retail
stores (especially smaller ones) can.  And of course, there are mobile
businesses (landscapers, trucking, taxis, etc.).  Some knowledge workers
can also get by, for a time, using only books and paper.