Posted on 01/11/2008 3:11:36 AM PST by Sub-Driver
California Proposes Taking Control of Thermostats By Monisha Bansal CNSNews.com Staff Writer January 11, 2008
(CNSNews.com) - The California Energy Commission has proposed requiring thermostats that allow the government to control the temperature of homes and businesses in case of high energy prices or shortages, a measure that some critics are calling "draconian."
The proposed regulations would require all residential and non-residential buildings to have a Programmable Communicating Thermostat (PCT).
The regulations state that "all PCTs shall be distributed with a non-removable Radio Data System (RDS) communications device ... which can be used by utilities to send price and emergency signals." For price events, thermostats can be offset by up to four degrees, but "customers shall be able to change the offsets and thermostat settings at any time during price events."
Upon receiving an emergency signal, "the PCT shall respond to commands contained in the emergency signal, including changing the setpoint by any number of degrees or to a specific temperature setpoint. The PCT shall not allow customer changes to thermostat settings during emergency events."
"This brings new meaning to the term 'climate control,'" said Peyton Knight, director of environmental and regulatory affairs at the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research.
"One of the reasons that liberal societies have free markets ... is so that people can make judgments and make tradeoffs for themselves," Tom Firey, regulatory policy analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute, told Cybercast News Service.
"In a sense, what California is doing is making the price infinite - at no price can you get the energy you need," he said. "They could claim that they are trying to give people a price break, but in a theoretical sense they're actually not - they are saying 'you can't get it at all,'
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Since they can’t control their spending, they figured it would be easier to control your heat.
Are you?
About...?
Calif is run by the Dems.
Gov Arnold is a RINO who runs with the Dems.
So, duh?
It always amazes me that so many folks don’t realize still, that the Dems are the Party of “take your money & liberties”. They could rename to “Socialist Party” w/o violating any truth in advertising.
So...the Calif Govt (read Dems as what with the low incomers, hispanics, illegals, felons and dead and imaginary people vote firmly in their pocket, Calif will stay a Dem state long into the future.
But as for the Calif Govt/Dems controlling your home thermostat, imagine your aged parent or young child is sick and it is winter and you want the heat on a bit warmer.
Govt: screw your sick child, your home stays PC “cool”.
What’s next, heating on alternate days?
Next the govt here in Calif will limit toilet paper useage. To save the earth. Only side, single ply squares for a #2 dump. One side for a #1 toilet use.
Right after incandescent light bulbs and sharp knives are banned.
They do this in my neck of the woods. It's not a very significant savings--5% or so.
PG & E are already offering free of charge thermostats that can be regulated by them... not only NO! but HELL NO!... besides.. our central heating is out of whack.. since it doesn’t get that cold here and it would take mondo money to fix it, we haven’t had heat since the beginning of winter.. we just deal with it and don’t have heating bills now.
I bet they find a way to charge you some “xyz” tax.
I heat with wood and there is no way to put a thermostat on my stove.
Or... they could build a few more power plants and offer tax incentives for people to do these kinds of things on their own.
Thank you NIMBY’s!
The CEO of my company has commented on how great it would be if my utility could turn off a refrigerator or AC unit as needed throughout the day to shave peaks.
I did ask why he presumed it was better for the company to make these decisions rather than the homeowner.
He believes the utility has a roll in managing the energy boundary of the house...
Look for him to be in a ranking government post under a Clinton admin.
bttt
This blew me away. Just two months ago when we were sitting around at our first youth hunt, I was talking to my twelve-yr-old son about government control. I don’t remember how it came up, but he said that something or other should be controlled (by the government). In explaining why that’s not good, I gave him examples of how things progress.
I told him that there could possibly come a day when the government would give fines for using too much electricity. Of course, we all agreed that would be horrible, but not totally unthinkable the way things are going. Lo and behold, I saw this article today!!
I’m telling you—they WILL be telling us how to wipe our butts one day!! (I’ve said that for years—”front to back”...)
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