🚀 go-pugleaf

in article 3A679C6C.140D583E@quiotix.com, Jeffrey Siegal  wrote:

> 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.

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