British Tories gone crazy?
Posted on September 11th, 2007 by bile Categories and Tags: Uncategorized, conservative party, David Cameron, energy, energy use, energy-guzzling electrical goods, Entertainment, environment, Europe, freedom, Friends of the Earth, global warming, household electrical appliances more energy, liberty, nanny state, police state, politics, property, regulation, Technology, UK, United Kingdom, your money, your rightsThe Conservatives will propose banning plasma screens and other energy-guzzling electrical goods in a report to be unveiled next week.The proposals target white goods like fridges and freezers, as well as TVs, personal computers and DVD players that use too much energy or operate on stand-by.
The ideas come from a Conservative group set up by David Cameron to develop policies to protect the environment and although the measures to make household electrical appliances more energy efficient are not binding on Mr Cameron, they are thought likely to be warmly received by the Tory leader.
The group will also suggest scrapping Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of the nation’s success in favour of a model that measures people’s happiness drawn up up by Friends of the Earth.
Under the proposals, a cap could be set on the energy use of each electrical appliance, and those exceeding limits could be banned from sale in the UK.
That’s the conservative party?! Is the British definition of conservative the opposite of the US English one? I had read previously about plans in parts of Europe to ban or heavily regulate standby modes and any power bricks which continued to use energy when not transforming current. This is nuts. Let the market decide electrical usage. If the cost of generation/transmission/storage goes up then people won’t keep their PS3, Xbox360 or Wii in standby mode. You pay for what you consume. What’s next? Requiring people to turn off lights before they leave a room? Legislate that sensors must be used in all rooms to guaranty lights are only on while someone is in it? Why don’t they save some power and turn off all those cameras? I’d bet unnecessarily left on lights consume more than TVs in standby.
Even more odd is this Friends of the Earth happiness measurement of national success. I’m really speechless.
8 Responses to “British Tories gone crazy?”
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September 11th, 2007 at 3:38 pm
Your elaborate comment generates too many high-energy white pixels on my screen. In fact, I’m probably breaking the law by transmitting this mess **NO CARRIER**
Here’s an energy saver — send these guys (politicians) home and let them meet a few times a year instead.
September 11th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
This is obscene. Here’s a question for you, will the market self regulate in time to avoid an energy crisis? By energy crisis I mean a situation that results in power being unattainable rather than just expensive.
September 11th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
It would be far more capable to do so if it weren’t so regulated in the first place. If they were not generally given monopoly status for particular regions. If there was any amount of competition. We don’t have anything like that so it’s unlikely anything will improve unless some technological breakthrough occurs. Power generation is fairly easy to increase. If there was a demand and open market it’d be easy for new power plants or other forms of power generation to supply.
What kind of crisis… not government made… would lead to power generation being unattainable?
September 11th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
Few thoughts:
* Slider on/off switches on wall wart/transformers would be useful.
* Standby vs. Power down buttons would be nice on appliances.
* Gross domestic product may not be a perfect indicator of success, but employing the Friends of the Earth is simply retarded.
Final thought: The Sun is a tabloid and could very possibly be taking things out of context or exaggerating to push an agenda.
September 12th, 2007 at 7:15 am
Here is a possibility: The energy companies produce energy as cheaply as possible to make the most profit in the short term. As a result they consume relatively cheap natural resources such as coal. Eventually they run out of coal and are forced to jack the price way up so they can build a new infrastructure to harness other sources of power. The public doesn’t like paying the huge prices so they become VERY energy conscious. As a result the energy companies don’t have the capital to finance their new construction projects and they can no longer produce energy. Granted this requires shortsightedness on the part of the energy company, but do you think it’s possible?
September 12th, 2007 at 7:24 am
No I don’t. There are plenty of both natural resources and different methods of energy production. Again… you are assuming there is this closed system without competition or progress. Coal is not the only source of power. There is plenty of uranium. The sun isn’t going anywhere soon. There are alternatives. It’s far more likely that the global economy collapses because of the many flaws before we run out of ways to generate energy or the ability to do it. There is no single company that uses only one source. There are lots of different companies using all different methods… if the government would let them compete their progress would only accelerate. If some go out of business thats fine. They would have deserved it. Others will come along.
September 12th, 2007 at 7:34 am
In response to beetlbum’s
Remember it’s a capitalist system so you can always make your voice heard. What you do is walk into walmart with a handgun and a bunch of switches and demand they solder them into the transformers.
In response to bile’s
OK, I see where you are coming from. How about this possibility:
The energy companies decide a monopoly is in their best interest and unilaterally cause a price inflation. After a short period of time they have enough money to effectively crush any emerging competition in the market. Is this possible?
September 12th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Monopolies do not exist without government interference. How is it that money in and of itself crush competition? How is it that the customers do not have the actual control? If you think this is a possible problem than educate people against supporting large industries which want to consolidate. If they support the monster than they reap what they sow. You are grasping at straws to come up with extreme hypotheticals. You can give me no historical evidence which supports these possible ends. The government has always been involved when large companies cause any actual harm to the people. In a free market the customers have the ability to give money to those who provide the service they desire and/or become a competitor.
When it comes down to it… no one is obligated to provide you with electrical power. If every single electrical generation company decided to charge incredibly high prices or stop doing business that’s their right.