With the government, nothing is unintended.
Posted on 01/14/2011 9:14:22 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Californians may end up paying the highest electricity rates in the country to charge their electric vehicles, a new study says.
The state's tiered rate system, in which customers are charged higher rates as they use more electricity, could make plug-in hybrid and battery-powered vehicles more costly to own, according to a Purdue University study.
The study was unveiled as the first of the electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles are reaching consumers. Two vehicles, the all-electric Nissan Leaf and the plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt, started being delivered to their first customers last month.
Electric-car makers and utilities said most owners will probably charge their vehicles at night when the rates are lower. But because of the tiered rate system, their electricity bills will still probably be high.
California households pay steeper rates for their electricity compared with other states — about 35% more than the national average, according to the study.
"The tiered system was put in because California wanted to be green and discourage electricity consumption," said Wally Tyner, an energy economist and lead researcher on the study. "The unintended consequence is that it also discourages electric vehicles."
A plug-in hybrid Volt would increase the average household's electrical usage 60%, the study said. Although the study didn't explicitly examine all-electric vehicles such as the Leaf, "the same principle would apply," Tyner said.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
one more example of how the Golden State has been driven to the edge of idiocy and beyond.. unintended consequences? maybe not..
karma, baby, karma.
Heck going green is expensive. Read in yesterday’s OCR that the city of San Clemente charges a 14,000 permit fee to install solar power on your own home.
How do you recharge your car during a rolling blackout?
btw,
There is no shortage of energy in the form of electricity and sources to produce it.. only a lack of resolve to use the resources readily available and build the new technology nuclear power plants and clean coal plants and LNG terminals..
but that is a vision thingy, many still can’t get by 3 Mile Island or Chernobyl in their teeny little brains... a vision which the Gubinator held along with other who retain the reins of state gubamint and demanded that we had to go renewable.
Define renewable? too bad politicos weren’t also “renewable”.
You simply keep driving to stay ahead of the blackout.
they need an emergency pedal-powered generator in the trunk.
I saw that.
OC Register
Which cities charge exhorbitant fees for solar permits?
http://taxdollars.ocregister.com/2011/01/13/which-cities-charge-exhorbitant-solar-permit-fees/72540/
Is that $14,000.00. REALLY?
The economic case for a plug in hybrid is tenuous enough with the extra upfront cost of these vehicles. Basically there was no advantage, with average electricty costs.
Now, in CA with thier punish the rich electric pricing structure; you have to pay big to be green. Right.
Note: I was a PG&E customer for 20 years.
Everyone will probably have to pay a 5-10 dollar tax on their bill that will go toward charging electric cars owned by the “indigent”.
Anything over about 560 kilowatt hours a month puts you into tier 4 with California’s PG&E. Tier 4 is just over $0.40 per kilowatt hour. Tier 5 was recently lowered from over 49 cents per kwh to be the same as tier 4.
That 560 kilowatt hours per month will run your fridge, a few lights a TV and a computer, but not much else. Certainly not an electric car.
This is why it can actually make economic sense to buy a solar system in CA, but fueling an electric car in CA could end up way more expensive than gas or diesel.
We put in an 8.1 KW solar system at the Easy Street residence last year, which is expected to generate around 11.5 megawatt hours per year, and it took our PG&E bill from over $700 a month down to $100-$200 per month. (Even lower in summer months.) Adding an electric car to our stable would put us right back into the top tiers again.
Also , every few years many thousands goes to having new batteries installed, how many have Ni MHi AA cells laying around that just don’t perform very well anymore?
So, then it might be cheaper to charge your hybrid by running the gasoline engine. Cool!
Heck going green is expensive
No joke, I did a study and asked for a proposal on our home, cost roughly $40,000 and would be obsolete in about 20 years, so that is $2,000 per year (paid up front) /by 12 = $166 cost per moth, my current bill is about $30-$50 per month
But we have hundreds of windmills, and you can use that electricity produced by the wind farms, of course you have to pay a small premium. As if they can tell which electrons in the grid come from the windmills.
People do actually pay the extra, because they think they are helping save the planet. I will be out of this state at last in the next 90 days.
It’s ironic that Jerry Brown had a chance for California to be a partner in the Palo Verde nuclear plant in Arizona when he was governor in the 70s. He didn’t want any part of nuclear power. He’s governor again and thanks to his policies, California doesn’t have enough generating capacity so CA buys power from PV. My brother works for Salt River Project at Palo Verde and says they charge California a pretty penny for the power. Imagine all of the jobs that could be created if we started building nuclear power plants, gasoline refineries, and started drilling for oil and natural gas here. Instead, our high energy costs have sent the manufacturing offshore. in 2012, we need to continually ask Obama “What happened to all of the “green” jobs you promised?”
I would love to know how many people who live in California know where electricity comes from. I think you would be amazed. ( ... or maybe not).
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