United Liberty

The Alabama Public Service Commission recently approved a measure that would allow consumers to permit Alabama Power to install a device that would automatically cut off their air conditioners during peak usage times (when most people are at work anyway). The incentive is that consumers would save $20 on their November electric bills.

Although I think this is a good start towards providing consumers with greater flexibility and options as far as their electricity usage, it’s still way behind the times.

When I ran for the Alabama Public Service Commission in 2008, I learned a great deal about existing technology that would save power and dramatically cut utility bills.

Perhaps no issue places our economy in a pinch and our foreign standing in peril, more than issues concerning oil. The price of a barrel of oil fluctuates, but consistently climbs as the downward fluctuation is always higher than the last low price.

Granted, gas prices at the pump are not going to go down quickly, but we do need to consider how we have found ourselves at the place where we are, so that we might evaluate a sound approach to the issue. Consider the following issues:

1) Primarily due to lack of tax incentives and stringent environmental regulations, we have not seen a new refinery built in the US in the last ten years. At the same time, a new refinery is built every two years in the Middle East.