No longer do we feel cornered and weakened by the fossil fuel industry. No longer will the price of coal or oil be on our minds. No longer will we pay our hard earned dollars to the energy companies!
Wow, now let's wait just a minute. This may sound like some campaign of the future, but when we break it down, this picture isn't really much different than reality, or at least not too far from it.
The technology is available, now, to completely eliminate an electricity bill from a home owner's monthly troubles. One of the reasons most families are still paying the power companies is that the pay back period is past the point of assurance. By assurance, I don't mean whether they will or won't be paid back, rather that families cannot accurately look that far into the future. Many families do not know if they will be in the same homes in nine years. They're not sure who will be left in the house to consume energy. Not to be a downer, but families don't know if they will even be together in nine years.
Four years is a much better number. Families can rationalize where they will be in four years. Millions of families already do when they watch a child go on to higher education, typically consisting of four years of schooling. Families are able to plan for four years.
Right now, the Long Island Power Association's rebate in combination with the Federal and State tax incentives, makes the payback period for renewable energy between four and five years. The Government incentives are not going down, but LIPA plans to reduce their rebate from $3.50 to $3.00 per watt. This, in effect, increases the payback time by an average of two to three years, bringing it up to seven or eight years.
This decrease in rebates will have the negative effect of reducing the amount of families willing to invest in renewable energy, unless something is done. This reduction in rebate must be either prevented or made up in another way.
LIPA wasn't paying attention to Micheal Stripe of R.E.M. In making their budget, they didn't forsee the growth potential and accessability that the renewable energy industry has. LIPA must not have guaged the interest in sustainable development on Long Island, and didn't allocate enough money into their budget to cover the rebates and now has to make changes to adapt to this shortcoming. The decrease in rebate is not the how the money should be recovered. To do so is like waving a steak a foot from the nose of a rottweiler with a loose chain. It is also prolonging the inevitable. LIPA must realize this and take the proper course of action. We need suggestions as much as they do.
