What does Deregulation of Energy mean? Deregulation means the relaxation or removal of laws that control an industry or business. Many feel that removing the government regulations will promote growth, innovation, and a free market system. But really, what does it mean to me? It means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. To some it means money.... just lots of money. To others it means a chance to make a positive difference... we do, after all live in a capitalist society. Those people who are making all that money need to get it from somewhere. So what does this have to do with the Deregulation of Energy?
The energy market nows looks more like a commodity market... much like the buying and selling of Orange juice. All the orange juice that we buy at the grocers has already been bought once, twice, maybe three times or more. The goal of a seller is to buy that commodity at the lowest price possible and sell it at a higher rate that is still competitive with the other sellers. This being said, lets talk about how we can effect this system. When we, the consumer, buy something at the retail price, we are paying the highest price for those goods (unless you're in the collectables markets such as antique automobiles which can appreciate in value). But in this case, we turn on a light bulb. The electricity it takes to burn that light bulb is gone, the electricity has completed it's journey from production to extinction much like when we drink a glass of OJ. So again, what we pay for that final consumable spark drives the overall market price either up or down. If we aren't buying it, we can't afford it. Before deregulation, we did not have the ability to choose what energy we payed for. We had to buy name brand orange juice. We didn't have a choice to buy the "generic brand" energy. Now, with deregulation, the game is on for commodity traders, producers, distributers, sellers and CONSUMERS, of energy. We are currently sitting atop the very peak of the energy market mountain. We can roll off one side of the mountain into a lush green pasture of clean energy or we can fall off the cliff into the rocky, jagged abyss of fossil fuel burning. The future is being decided as we breathe and it all comes down to the CONSUMER in this game. That's us!!! If you are reading this you are CONSUMING energy in the energy market. But what can we do? We need the electricity or we can't heat our house, can't microwave our dinner, we can't surf facebook, we can't use a defibrillator or use an x-ray machine. So much of our life is connected to the energy market. Even all of our other commodities rely on the energy market, our food, our water, our shelter.
Ok so here it is. In short form, we as consumers have control over what the statistics look like for 2011 and on. We now (Maryland, Connecticut and Pennsylvania residents) have the option to buy renewable electricity. The more we buy it, the more companies will want to produce it, the more renewable energy being produced means the cheaper it will be to buy and the greener our pastures will be in the future. Now for the challenge. Most people see deregulation as a way to lower energy bills. While true, when you can save money by buying the cheap electricity from coal fired power plants, nuclear facilities or from a dammed river, wouldn't you rather break even and buy clean energy from wind farms, solar facilities, or geothermal? When we ask ourselves what kind of orange juice we are going to buy the majority of us probably don't think about how the orange was treated before it was pulverized into its elemental pieces or what sort of preservative was added, we buy based on how much it costs. Likewise we rarely think of the smoke stacks or toxic waste when we flip on the light switch. WELL THINK ABOUT IT!!!! This is our opportunity to prove that we can make a conscious choice as CONSUMERS to buy electricity that was not grown with pesticides and harmful fertilizers but was produced with a minimum impact on our environment- where we live and breathe. What will we leave behind for the next generation depends on this decision, locally and globally. The greatest threat to humanity, at this point in time, is our dependence on finite resources to live. Modernization, as we know it, cannot sustain itself unless we can wean ourselves off of this addiction to fossil fuels. I feel bad for the people who do not rely on the modern world to survive because they are at the mercy of what we do with the planet. So here are some facts. The electricity consumed in the US in 2009 was 3,741.485 Billion Kilowatthours. Currently the price of electricity in Maryland ranges from ∼ $0.0959/kilowatthours to ∼ $0.1075/kwh. Please look at the break down of what kinds of electricity we bought by clicking here. (A side note to that website- check out the statistics of who is using Nuclear Energy and Coal, unfortunately the electricity made from coal fired power plants is not identified in the electricity stats). Now, what we can do as consumers in a deregulated state is drive demand for renewable electricity. We essentially have control over the statistics for future charts. If we all (or at least the majority) decide it is more important to save the planet from resource depletion then to save a couple hundred bucks a year, we just may roll off the energy mountain into a beautiful green pasture with rolling hills and winding rivers full of fresh clean water and tasty fish. If you live in a deregulated state, you have the choice to buy your energy from a number of different companies, not just BGE or peco energy.
After doing some research, I found that there a few companies who make it extremely easy to switch to renewable energies. Companies such as Viridian, Clean Currents and North American Power now can sell renewable energy certificates with their power. The Renewable Energy Certificates or RECS, are created for each megawatt of renewable energy created and put into the grid. Once in the grid, all electricity looks the same. But by creating RECS we can track what percentage of energy in the grid has renewable roots. North American Power has worked it out so that your bill doesn't change, your utility maintenance remains the same, and there are no contracts or commitments. With North American Power, a group 2b4theworld is now affiliated with, you can easily choose what percentage of electricity you want to be renewable. If you choose 100% renewable energy, it doesn't cost any more then what your are already paying. You also have the option of choosing 50% renewable energy which saves you about 6% on your electricity bill. I urge you to take control of your energy buying and switch to 50 or 100% renewable energy. It's easy. Follow this link to make the switch.
