A Subject That Both Mainstream Left & Right Can Agree On

The huge increase in energy bills. These prices do not have to be this high and in the uk another increase in Oct is going to cause unmitigated devastation to the poor and small/medium businesses.

What are peoples ideas about how to tackle this rapacious greed?

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BlueVeins · 22-25

This crushing price hike as overwhelmingly been driven by massive price hikes in natural gas, coal, and oil -- assets which have always been volatile in price (to varying degrees). We should address it by switching to other power sources, a change we could make through tax credits and municipal reform. In addition, we should give out a tax credit for heat pump installation & have a government-run campaign to increase accessibility of these energy efficient systems. We should further reduce the demand for oil by switching to low-oil or no-oil transportation system, such as bike, rail, and pedestrian infrastructure. This would involve changing the zoning codes to make these types of transport more practical.

Most of these changes would take a long time to effectively enact, unfortunately. In the short term, we could repeal the Jones Act of 1920, an archaic protectionist law which makes it much more expensive to ship between US ports. This law both makes it harder for the US to consume its own oil and increases the number of trucks on our roads. And among the infrastructure changes, some would be pretty easy like putting up barriers for protected bike lanes, painting on some bus lanes, and running those same buses more frequently.

Crazy, how much we could do to address this problem if we had some american unity for once, but sadly these things are seen as partisan footballs and very little movement ever gets made as a result.

gol979 · 41-45, M

@BlueVeins completely disagree with that analysis but its almost irrelevant as by the time any of those proposals happen ppl will have been economically screwed.

What can we do as normal ppl to stand up to this greed?

CestManan · 46-50, F

@BlueVeins I think a lot of the energy increase could be attributed to that one post because my God it is long.

BlueVeins · 22-25

@gol979 [quote]completely disagree with that analysis[/quote]

why though

[quote]but its almost irrelevant as by the time any of those proposals happen ppl will have been economically screwed.[/quote]

IAs if people can't be economically screwed twice? If everyone thought about shit this way, we'd still be using manual elevator operation bc automating them takes time.

[quote]What can we do as normal ppl to stand up to this greed?[/quote]

Bike more. Walk more. Take public transport more. Try to carpool when those options aren't available (as if often the case). Install a heat pump and some solar panels to your home. If you're [i]really[/i] dedicated to the craft, look into LEED certification. Buy and use a car which consumes as little petroleum, natural gas, & coal as possible. Look for politicians in your area who support the policies outlined in my prior post; go canvassing & phone banking for them. Replace your grass lawn with ground cover so you don't have to mow it. Many of these things are sadly inaccessible depending on your income and living conditions, but they can have an impact if you stick to the ones you [i]can[/i] do.

gol979 · 41-45, M

@BlueVeins heat pump.....useless. Replace grass 😂😂😂 jeez. Have you got shares in energy as well as big harma? Anyway, enjoy the rest of your day.....we are so far apart in our versions of reality its like another language and theres never any empathy and this post is supposed to be about normal ppl standing up to illegitimate authority

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BlueVeins · 22-25

@CestManan I'm flattered!