Puget Sound Energy Exported Rant

Compact fluorescent bulbs left me cold

The exact bulb shown in the picture costs $5.99 at Safeway. I noticed it today while picking up a birthday cake for my girlfriend.

A three-pack of the exact same bulbs costs $7.68 at Wal-Mart (if memory serves, which I believe it does). I bring this up because Puget Sound Energy coupons are available at Wal-Mart (here in Washington State). They give you $2 off per bulb. You can actually use three coupons on each three-pack (it says so right on the coupon). That brings the cost per bulb down to $0.56 a bulb (before sales tax).

Want some price deflation? I'm offering 93% off. Puget Sound Energy is practically throwing money at us. I've been certainly taking advantage of my fair share of it.

The coupons can be hard to come by as they tend to go quickly. The last time I was at the South Center Wal-Mart (Seattle area) I saw a note that redirected you to extra coupons at the paint counter. It seems one employee at that particular store has made it his/her mission to see that we don't pay full price for the bulbs. I congratulate him/her.

One reason the coupons tend to go quickly is that there is a limit of 12. You buy FOUR three-packs and you end up using TWELVE coupons. Who is the rocket scientist over at Puget Sound Energy who thought that one up? They are full color coupons printed on high quality paper and nearly suitable for framing. Let's hope these "highly efficient" coupons didn't cost more than 56 cents each to make. Out of curiosity, who pays for that in the end?

That's not the rant. That's just the setup for the rant. Get ready for it. Brace yourself. I think I know who pays for it. We do! Big shocker, huh?

What sale of Puget Sound Energy will mean to you

By year's end, Puget Sound Energy customers could be paying their electricity and natural-gas bills to a utility owned by an Australian investment bank and Canadian pension funds.

That's just perfect. We already pay foreigners for our oil. This will complete the energy policy picture.

Q: The consortium of buyers is borrowing about $4.2 billion. Doesn't that raise a red flag about the financial stability of the utility?

A: Yes, ffitch said. That much debt financing could put pressure on the company to ask for future rate increases. While the amount of debt financing could be a concern, PSE faces the same sorts of challenges as a stand-alone company, DeBoer said.

Oh that just frickin' figures. Although we've sent SO much money overseas through our massive trade deficit, the buyers would prefer to use debt anyway. We'll be rolling in even more debt-based prosperity before you know it.

Q: What has been the reaction to the proposed sale since it was announced in October?

A: The buyout has triggered grassroots initiatives on Whidbey Island and in Skagit and Jefferson counties to study the feasibility of public utilities taking over electrical service there. Puget officials have said they would take legal action to halt such moves. In addition, opposition to the utility sale and rate increase is running about 95 percent from the more than 8,000 public comments received by the UTC, commission spokeswoman Marilyn Meehan said.

One only wonders what the five percent must be thinking. Oh well, it isn't like we have much of a choice. At the first hint we won't sell them our utilities they'll probably just bid up the price of oil instead. I'm a big believer in The Laws of Unintended Consequences and therefore see no easy way out of our predicament.

Jack Z. Smith: Oh, believe me, it can get worse

Can anyone seriously deny that it couldn't get worse? That's just predicting a continuation of the current trends. We've had the equivalent of thirteen 20% increases in oil since the bottom in 1998. Why are we suddenly worried about the fourteenth or the fifteenth?

The energy picture is scary and depressing...

But the long-term energy outlook perhaps is even more frightening for America, the world's biggest energy consumer and largest importer of oil.

Illusion of Frickin' Prosperity. That's what I should have named my blog.