Juneau and global warming
An avalanche wiped out Juneau's supply of cheap power for a few months; rates will rise from 11 cents/kwh to 53 cents/kwh while the city uses more expensive diesel power.
What the NY Times story doesn't mention: as Juneau residents suffer greatly and make many sacrifices to cut their electric bills, they have shown that their short-term elasticity for a 382% price increase in power costs, dropped their usage by less than 40%.
Even if this could be duplicated across the nation—and it couldn't, not least because I suspect Juneau doesn't have much in the way of electricity-intensive manufacturing—it would do nothing to prevent or forestall global warming, while imposing thousands of dollars in direct costs and even more in indirect costs to every American family. If something were done to minimize the impact on the poor, we'd lose even more conservation efforts.
What the NY Times story doesn't mention: as Juneau residents suffer greatly and make many sacrifices to cut their electric bills, they have shown that their short-term elasticity for a 382% price increase in power costs, dropped their usage by less than 40%.
Even if this could be duplicated across the nation—and it couldn't, not least because I suspect Juneau doesn't have much in the way of electricity-intensive manufacturing—it would do nothing to prevent or forestall global warming, while imposing thousands of dollars in direct costs and even more in indirect costs to every American family. If something were done to minimize the impact on the poor, we'd lose even more conservation efforts.