Paying For The Basics, Energy Rates, the Cost of Combustion

August 3, 2010. Updated 8/2011, 8/2012, 5/2013, July 25, 2014

On April 20, 2010 a rig was setting up to drill for oil in the Gulf Coast of Louisiana. They had not started the drilling process yet, but were trying to set pipe into holes drilled down into the Ocean floor. A freak accident occurred, causing a massive explosion, and killing 11 crew members - and the Mississippi Embayment.

All of Earth's waters, and all of the air is connected. There is not one set of water for Louisiana, and one set for California. The air does not just bounce back and forth within the airspace of the borders of North Korea - it is all connected.

When the Deepwater Horizon Disaster happened, our Earth's systems were already in distress in the air filtering systems. Our upper cyclonic patterns were in danger of breaking down. The air being filtered globally, and the waters are filtered after a three year trip around the planet.

The Mississippi Embayment was one of the largest wetlands in the world. It was here that oceanic waters would come through to be cleaned. After the waters are clean, they continue their journey, out past the Gulf Coast, and work with the winds to cool the planets waters. Instead our wetland was bogged down with millions of gallons of crude oil, and tons of Corexit™.

It has been three years, and some of the damage done to the Mississippi Embayment has healed, but much has not. The ocean temperatures have continued to climb to the place where the water cannot sustain life as it once did. Deepwater Horizon, is just one of the thousands of oil spills, and environmental disasters that harm our globe each day.

The worst thing about this all is that it is all for energy. Energy we cannot afford. America was built as a unique darling, but she did not learn the lessons from all of the other World Leaders we have studied through history. One cannot wreck the environment, because then we will no longer have a civilization. (We won't have a society, if we destroy the environment [Mead]).

Today is September 18, 2013 and our temperatures have been white hot, but nothing like what we experienced from May 01, 2010 to November 30, 2012.

"It is September 7, 2012 and we have had triple digit weather for 90 days

This morning I started early, because I hope to get as much done as possible. It is going to be another hot day in Arkansas, USA.

My ultimate goal in writing is to be positive and give others hope...today I am struggling with that.

There used to be a rule, that if temperatures go over 100°, the Entergy company cannot shut a residents electricity. This is no longer true.

The Energy industry has gone from serving customers, to ruling every aspect of our modern lives. They can do what they want, charge what they want, and continually get raises.

As the utility man told us last week (2010), "your new bill is coming out today, and it is over $700.00." I am sure Entergy's Stockholders are ecstatic.

In Arkansas, the State, and Cities get a Franchise use tax on every kw hour we are charged.

Until July of 2012, we did not get any credit for using electricity off peak times. In Arkansas we can get off the grid, but the utility companies are protected from State legislation from having to purchase excess electricity generated by a resident.

To be removed from the grid, you have to just pretend you are not hooked up, and do the best you can. There are State legislated rules in place that disallow citizens from making the utility company buy back electricity generated from solar or other alternative systems."

It is not a big leap to conspiracy theories surrounding the Deep Water Horizon Disaster. When considering that in the South, the two summers before this one, were the mildest on record.

Energy providers were distressed by the mild electricity use. Our Governor was lamenting the fact that tax revenues were down, Entergy sued for higher rates, because their profits were down...They have Won the Big One now!

Citizens have no recourse against the Energy providers, because they are in business with our local government and Legislators.

We have a Public Service Commission, who at one time was to protect citizens against the powerful Energy Companies. The last conversation I had with them, they let me know that the PSC is there to protect the Utility Companies and to make sure they make a profit each quarter. Well done.

As has been the story in Arkansas for as long as they joined the US, there are a smattering of millionaires while the general population reels in poverty.

Arkansas has a Constitutional Amendment that makes the State operate fiscally, in the black. We are not allowed to be in the red. This is sound and wise. There is nothing wrong with living within one's means.

The thing that bothers me is that the State has millions of dollars in surplus. Many State agencies operated individually, and there are pockets where millions of dollars languish until it is lost, because agencies, "don't know what to do with it".

One of my first Hubs; Why is it so hot in the South, could it be that the eco-system of Gulf Coast, offers a scientific explanation as to why we cannot get any relief from the heat here in the South.

It is because the 'air conditioner' for the South and many other parts of the Globe is so clogged with oil and other toxins, that cooling,cyclonic winds are no longer available.They are broken.

As a scientist, the outlook is very gloomy. If it were not for my faith and continued positive belief that things will get better, I would lose all hope. We need a miracle for our Earth, many Americans, need a miracle to pay the cost of keeping cool enough to keep their family and pets alive.

I know that we are blessed in many ways. I think about those who live in other Countries and the homeless all the time. What they must be going through. I think about the elderly on fixed incomes, and wonder what all they are doing without, just to keep a fan blowing hot air on them? I am thinking about the young newlyweds who are facing financial ruin over paying bills that are necessities, but tripled.

Small and large businesses are being hit hard. Heat causes tempers to rise, and the normal, everyday stresses are hard on a family or couple. Add 100 days of 100° degrees, Tripled monthly bills never budgeted for will see our US Energy policies wiping out marriages, causing more homelessness, and destroying families.

I have been an environmentalist since I was a kid, and I would love to live an alternative lifestyle when it comes to Energy, but where I live does not allow that. "If you don't like the way it is, move!" What a simple solution. It unrealistic. It is not easy to move, and then set up your own system...and move where? And with what?

Gulf Coast residents are facing the worst of it, believe me. Their entire way of life has been taken from them. We will not be around to see the Gulf Coast restored to the fishing, clamming and shrimping industry. For a while there will be drilling, but unless there are big changes for the good, it will not be 'business as usual'.

I have Facebook friends who have had to leave their homes in Louisiana for their health and sanity. The heat, dispersant use, fumes and emotional toll has been too much. Many couples have separated and divorced over this disaster. They need to be compensated. Compensation is slow, and too little too late. They should be restored and compensated first and it should be yesterday.

I keep wanting to say "it's not my fault the Deep Water Disaster happened." I cannot.

From almost the start, I re-researched the Valdez wreck, to find out the amount of oil "spilled." One of the first things I saw was an article by a Green Peace member.

It started out, "It wasn't Exxon Valdez Captain's Driving that caused the Alaskan Oil Spill, It was yours". i resemble that remark.

I have never 'gone after BP', because unfortunately the unpopular answer is stop all this driving.

We are going to have to change our way of transporting ourselves. This is not going to happen until an Apocalypse, so...I still putter down the highway, looking for a train...

08/31/2010

Update - This last week probably saved many lives, it sure saved many hearts. We finally experienced days only peaking in the low 90's. Time to get the sweaters out! Yesterday was overcast, and that has not happened since May 22, 2010. I was giddy yesterday thinking that we may finally get cooler weather, and much needed rain.

Today, the radio announcer is letting us know, the temps are creeping back up into the high 90's. We have never had such a hot summer. People are so funny, and easy to forget. In our recorded history, in Arkansas, we have never had this high of temperatures for this many consecutive days.

Yes, there is a direct affect between the Gulf DeepWater Horizon Disaster and the Weather Patterns. The Southern U.S. were the first to experience this, but it is spreading out to the entire globe. 

In my opinion, this record heat wave is due to the break-down of upper cyclonic winds, and the direct cause is crude oil, clogging our 'air conditioning filter', and I think BP should be paying the excess of electric bills of everyone in the South. We are all connected and everyday this is becoming more apparent. As the crow flies, I am about 800 miles from the Louisiana Gulf Coast - as the weather and economy flies, it is my backdoor.

We are coming up on the 5 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Less than one month after Katrina, her sister Rita came through. The actual Hurricanes devastated New Orleans, and many other Gulf Coast cities, and States. Arkansas got many evacuees. The treatment of the souls of the Gulf Coast region is horrible. We tried to make the 'refugees' feel at home as possible...Southern Hospitality. I love Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Georgia, and have lots of connections to all but Georgia. These are some righteous folks and they can come to our house anytime -

I don't want to take away from their suffering, so I will finally say, after Rita in September 2005 the career I had was over. I was a Quality Control Inspector on Model Landfill construction. Hurricane Rita ran me off of my last job. Due to the increase in petroleum costs, all future jobs were sent back to the drawing table, also President Bush waived many Clean Air/Water Act regulations, allowing landfills to continue stockpiling garbage as high as it will go.

Here we are again, my brothers and sisters in the Gulf Coast States, need and deserve to be restored to their lives before the Deep Water Horizon Disaster - First. The rest of the South is being directly affected by the breakdown of the worlds largest Wetland. We have surpassed the last longest heat wave, of 1980.

We are not going to get Weather relief until September. Hopefully it will come sooner, but we need financial relief as well. I was not operating the Oil Rig in an ecologically delicate area, I did not cause the explosion, if I had of been, I would be in jail or already executed. Big Energy was, and they continue to make large profits while many in the South are losing it all.

The summer bills totaled only $1500.00, this was for the basics in living in a home that is set up to operate with electricity only. I stopped driving my vehicle on May 29, 2010, because I know my part in the Gulf Disaster was due to my demand for oil.