Massachusetts governor plans to cut electricity use by letting power companies charge more if customers use less. This is just plain bizarre.
Hoping to make Massachusetts a national showcase for energy conservation, Governor Deval Patrick will announce plans today to offset the state's annual increases in electricity demand with equivalent energy-efficiency and conservation measures by 2010.
As the economy has grown and as many homeowners have added electronics and air-conditioning, the state's total electric usage has been increasing at about 1 percent annually, the equivalent of adding about 170,000 new average-sized houses every year, US Energy Department data show.
But Patrick contends that the state can conserve at least that much more electricity every year and keep overall demand frozen indefinitely, for much less than the cost of building new power plants.
Patrick's policy will include legislation to require that utilities such as NStar and National Grid pay for all energy-conservation efforts that, in cost per unit of power saved, are less expensive than buying that much power from energy suppliers. That could include subsidizing the cost of customers installing lower- consumption lighting such as fluorescent bulbs or replacing appliances and industrial gear.
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