General Music Chat

Back in the 90s we were ordered to add MBTE to our gasoline. This was a government mandate to make all our cars burn cleaner. All it did was reduce gas mileage. This was our government protecting us.
After a few years, the truth started to come out. MBTE does NOT chemically break down,,, and it was leaching into Long Islands aquifer. Long Islands drinking water. Only time will tell the absolute damage done by the absolute stupidity of my local leaders. IT WAS THE LAW!

My latest observation falls along the same lines. July 1st in NY, All heating oil had to be LOW SULFUR. Great for the environment right....

Yes and no. Regular oil used to average out at @14000 BTUs per gallon. All my Auto deliveries are showing that people are only getting @ 12500 BTUs from a gallon of oil. On top of that, low sulfur has added another 20 cents a gallon.

Now a real kicker... Sulfur is also a lubricant. I am running into service issues that concern the little oil burner pumps. Trying to avoid becoming technical,,, the seals on these pumps are failing at a HUGE rate.

For all you tree huggers,,, you just got laws passed that are now creating more pollution. Burners are running longer, creating more CO2, and now all these pumps need to be manufactured creating more pollution.

For every one else it is just government costing you more money with as much zeal as a corrupt corporation.

I don't expect any reply,,, just wanted to share a little frustration with having leaders that have no concern except for their own re-election.

A few words: Sun Cloud portable heaters. Heat Surge heaters. It ony takes a handfful of these in an average house to heat the entre house. Your electric bill won't rise much at all. You won't use your main furnace at all. Your over-all utlity bill will plummet. Pollution will lower. The heat is more comfortable. Just something we've been doing for about five years. Average heating gas bill $35 per month! Electric bill about $165 per month.

We don't have any gas.
Everything is electric.
So, I guess our utilities are generally lower-cost than most.
The electric bill stays kinda high tho'.

we have electric heat.. and live in what might be the most expensive electric area in the nation..(PECO) A 2BR apt is costing us an average of $225 a month. It's killing me.

In our old place, it was nat. gas heat.. $350 a month during winter (2br apt omg), we went and bought the electric heaters and it went down to about $150 a month. I thought that was bad until we moved into PECO territory...

Bob - those heaters you mention are no better than any other portable-type electric heaters. It's basic physics - ***watts will give you *** BTUs of heat.
For those who don't have a well-insulated house, or who only want to keep certain rooms toasty, they work well. Also, if you have high-priced oil heat, it's a viable way to lower your heating bills, if electricity is not too expensive in your area.
I've got natural gas (not propane), and the cost has come way down in 2 years for it. Electric bills have not increased dramatically in the last year, due to natural gas-fired power plants, but running electric space heaters is always more expensive than running a gas furnace.

Wow you guys are lucky. If it stays warm the average house is burning 200 gallons of oil, Dec,Jan,Feb,,, 150 gallons Nov, March, and @120 gallons in the transitional months, October, april and may.

Just to put this in perspective,, 200 gallons @ todays price of 3.50 a gallon with taxes,,, going to cost you $750.

Electric here,,, Joking right,,, 22 cents a KWH before all the taxes. Plug in one of those wonderful electric cars,,,, the equivalent of paying SIX BUCKS A GALLON FOR GAS.

Time to move to TEXAS!!!!!

Want cheap heat? Move to Alberta, outside the cities (Calgary, etc) - it may be cold, but they tap off the main natural gas lines from the north (you have to join a 'community pipeline'). Typical gas bill a few years ago (last time I was there) was $100 a month in the middle of the winter!

All utilities should be public and not-for-profit.

If someone thinks they can offer a better private service for more $$, then by all means, let them. But no tax subsidies or government assistance! Tsk tsk!

We've allowed these vampires to suck all our money up for providing nothing except them acting as a middle-man and driving up costs.

And that's exactly what's wrong with health care right now.

All utilities should be public and not-for-profit.

If someone thinks they can offer a better private service for more $$, then by all means, let them. But no tax subsidies or government assistance! Tsk tsk!

We've allowed these vampires to suck all our money up for providing nothing except them acting as a middle-man and driving up costs.

And that's exactly what's wrong with health care right now.

Actually, the places that have made their utilities public have fewer problems with their service.
Los Angeles, I believe has a publicly owned power company.
When the rest of the state suffered blackouts (due to Enron's tampering) Los Angeles still had power.

Some areas not served by the cable companies attempted to set up publicly-owned cable companies for their areas.
But, AOL Time-Warner and the others had them shut down.
So, now they get NO SERVICE from anyone.

I think Americans are gonna have to realize that markets generally work for some products and services, but fail miserably at providing others which should be publicly-owned and operated.

Wow you guys are lucky. If it stays warm the average house is burning 200 gallons of oil, Dec,Jan,Feb,,, 150 gallons Nov, March, and @120 gallons in the transitional months, October, april and may.

Just to put this in perspective,, 200 gallons @ todays price of 3.50 a gallon with taxes,,, going to cost you $750.

Electric here,,, Joking right,,, 22 cents a KWH before all the taxes. Plug in one of those wonderful electric cars,,,, the equivalent of paying SIX BUCKS A GALLON FOR GAS.

Time to move to TEXAS!!!!!

I have been wearing a t-shirt and shorts for a week now lows in the 40 to 50 and highs of 70. One thing I was thinking yesterday. Cold weather and fall leaf changing occur sooner up north where some of you guys are. It is the reverse for the warming spring trend. Perhaps that is why we have so many "snow birds" here. One of my favorite spots on Galveston Island is the "Poop Deck" where the elite meet in their bare feet! Seriously you are on the 2cd floor right on Seawall Blvd. you just set their DRANKIN and watching the ocean and the "snow birds" drive on the Blvd. below! It is a GOOoooD time!
If you do come to Texas prepare for high electric bills during the summer due to a.c. from June thru Sept. the average light bill will be $300.00+ the other 9 months the weather is NICE!

Wow you guys are lucky. If it stays warm the average house is burning 200 gallons of oil, Dec,Jan,Feb,,, 150 gallons Nov, March, and @120 gallons in the transitional months, October, april and may.

Just to put this in perspective,, 200 gallons @ todays price of 3.50 a gallon with taxes,,, going to cost you $750.

Electric here,,, Joking right,,, 22 cents a KWH before all the taxes. Plug in one of those wonderful electric cars,,,, the equivalent of paying SIX BUCKS A GALLON FOR GAS.

Time to move to TEXAS!!!!!

I have been wearing a t-shirt and shorts for a week now lows in the 40 to 50 and highs of 70. One thing I was thinking yesterday. Cold weather and fall leaf changing occur sooner up north where some of you guys are. It is the reverse for the warming spring trend. Perhaps that is why we have so many "snow birds" here. One of my favorite spots on Galveston Island is the "Poop Deck" where the elite meet in their bare feet! Seriously you are on the 2cd floor right on Seawall Blvd. you just set their DRANKIN and watching the ocean and the "snow birds" drive on the Blvd. below! It is a GOOoooD time!
If you do come to Texas prepare for high electric bills during the summer due to a.c. from June thru Sept. the average light bill will be $300.00+ the other 9 months the weather is NICE!

Jeff, I got a question: In Houston, do they structure the electric bill as based on each customer , solely , or do they lum in your usage with everybody elses usage and avaerage that out? I ask cause invaribly, there are families who get a huge discount for being on welafare, which means everybody else has to pick up the slack. Just curious how they do it in Houston these days...

Grant, you pay based on killowatt hourly usage. The T.U.C. (Texas Utility Commision) has basically sold us up a river! The big power companies have decided to change out our perfectly good meters with the new Digital meters. You have NO choice. people here are suing over it. One friend of mine is in a wheelchair and permantly disabled. He set out every day waiting for the company to TRY and change his meter LOL! Any way you have no choice but to BUY a new meter. The power company sold the P.U.C. on the idea because they are supposedly more accurate (wink wink) and the power company can monitor your usage round the clock, turn off power, turn on power, monitor outages. Yeah right? They are now implenting a program where during peak usage hrs the elec. cost more. This way they can SCREW the public out of more money.

This is BAD NEWS for grow houses. Those guys use a humongous amount of elect. and it alerts the police. The other day some dumbass was electrocuted trying to jack leg electric by bi-passing a meter!

I literally live in the boondocks, not a village, but miles from the closest village, farmers all around, raising mainly pasture fed beef cattle but some dairy farms remain, ELECTRICITY IS SUBSIDIZED here cause I get it from a rural electric co-operative.. it is dirt cheap to heat with electricity here thanks to taxpayers helping.. nothing like living off subsidies..

I have been wearing a t-shirt and shorts for a week now lows in the 40 to 50 and highs of 70. One thing I was thinking yesterday. Cold weather and fall leaf changing occur sooner up north where some of you guys are. It is the reverse for the warming spring trend. Perhaps that is why we have so many "snow birds" here. One of my favorite spots on Galveston Island is the "Poop Deck" where the elite meet in their bare feet! Seriously you are on the 2cd floor right on Seawall Blvd. you just set their DRANKIN and watching the ocean and the "snow birds" drive on the Blvd. below! It is a GOOoooD time!
If you do come to Texas prepare for high electric bills during the summer due to a.c. from June thru Sept. the average light bill will be $300.00+ the other 9 months the weather is NICE!

Wasn't there a little 'storm' (Hurricane Ike) that blew through Galveston a few years ago and flattened 3/4 of the place?

yeah, was that not when it took Bush weeks to get Federal Aid money coming in to help? and they let the welfare families sleep in the woods? with landowner's permission though?