-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 8:04 PM To: Bryan Brah Subject: fear crushes us all down
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Wrote: >We fear change in america,yet change is what we need and it will mess our little world up before it gets right.If these co-ops >folded and more "farmers" were needed to fill the hole left by big brother,good. I disagree. The way that a cooperative is supposed to work, is that the co-op buys something from a wholesaler, and charges just enough to its members to pay for it and cover operating costs. The co-op system was originally established and applied by farmers to obtain seed, water and equipment, but has been expanded to cover a wide range of products and services (Sam's Wholesale club is ostensibly a co-op). Electricity co-ops are different in that they buy and sell electricity, and are bound by certain state and federal regulations, which incidentally differ from those established for utility companies. The problem is that many utility co-ops have in effect become for-profit utility companies and they aren't held accountable by regulators or members. This isn't universally true, but is becoming more the rule. I don't know the exact situation of this Iowa co-op, but it's irrelevant to this discussion. Say this farmer and a few of his buddies succeed in shutting down the co-op. Who is going to provide electricity to people who can't afford their own turbines, or will the farmer just step in and become the new utility company? Do you really think that this guy will set up new service and maintain existing service, and if so how much do you think he'll charge for the privilege of buying his power? Since it's obvious he doesn't have storage capacity, how will he prevent brownouts and blackouts? How hard will it be for him to comply with federal and state regulations as a utility provider, or do you also advocate scrapping these regulations? Here's another situation, imagine that the co-op doesn't go out of business, but instead is forced to pass on the cost of electricity to its members. Imagine yourself as a rural electricity consumer; would you be willing to pay one and a half to two times as much for electricity to subsidize the cost of your neighbor's $45K wind turbine? It seems to me that what you're advocating is just replacing one master with another. This is a very unreasonable position and leads me to believe that you either didn't think about the outcome of your suggestion, or that you're trolling. -BRAH [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?list=biofuel Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
