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San Diego Gas & Electric rates are nation's highest
Ah, Don, Don, Don. I can read what the "experts" say anytime I want. And as a long time proponent of solar PV, I have read, and continue to read, what the "experts" say. No need to someday read a rehashed version of the same in your column. Unless I am mistaken, you have written in the past that you considered solar for your residence in Co., but dismissed it as too expensive. Since you wrote that YOU think more incentives should be required, I was simply interested in reading your own PERSONAL opinion is as to those incentives. You know, the incentives that would possibly entice you to install solar at your home. No need for a column, just a simple sentence or two explaining your own personal view. Obviously though, you don't want to share your personal opinion. I do find that curious, since you have no problem sharing your personal view on almost anything else. But as my youngest would say, Whatever. Time to move on.— April 30, 2013 7:17 a.m.
San Diego Gas & Electric rates are nation's highest
No, Don Bauder, I am not asking for an assay. Please take note, AGAIN, that I did not ask HOW MUCH incentives should be. I asked what type of incentives should be required. I asked for a simple clarification of your comment, which could consist of 1 or 2 lines in a reply. It's as simple as "Well, in my opinion, such incentives could be A,B or C", as I did in my above comment. Plenty of room in a comment on a blog for that one short sentence. I mean really, how tough is that. My guess is that your reticence to even offer 1 short sentence listing what TYPES of incentives you believe a utility should be required to offer, again NOT how much they should be in terms of dollars, is because you simply don't have an idea of what they should be That's fine. If you want to make a comment such as you "would like to see the CPUC force SDGE to offer incentives for solar adoption" without having even a simple, basic idea formed of what types of incentives they should be, that's your prerogative. To me, it just always seems a little silly anytime someone makes a statement about something needing to be done and yet can't even give a short, concise, 1 or 2 sentence statement of what it is they think that something could be, no matter how primitive a form that idea is. I took me longer to type my above suggestions than it did to think of them. I really don't mean to badger you, but that's just me. I have always been a details guy. Tell me something needs to be different, that's great but at least give me a thumbnail of what the change should be and we'll go from there. It's the old if you come to me with a problem, also come to me with a solution deal. Even if it's just a crude idea, I want to hear it. As I said, that's just me.— April 29, 2013 8:52 a.m.
San Diego Gas & Electric rates are nation's highest
DooDooEcon Read the comment again. Dennis doesn't pay $55 per month. That was $55 for the ENTIRE YEAR. We have had solar on our home in L.A. for over 20 yrs and on our weekend place in Palm Springs for close to 10. When you look at the aggregate of the 2, we haven't paid an electric bill in years.— April 29, 2013 8:19 a.m.
San Diego Gas & Electric rates are nation's highest
Don Bauder, First off, I wasn't asking for a specific amount or formula for determining an amount. But since you said it, I can only say Come on, man. Surely you can do better than that. How can you say that you want the CPUC to force utilities to offer incentives for solar adoption and not have at least SOME idea of what they should be. That's like someone saying they should get paid more for the job they do and then when asked how how much they think they should get paid, they say I don't know, what do you think. But in this case, I wasn't referring to specific amounts. Logically speaking, amounts would vary by installation. I was referring to what types of incentives. So, should it be increased buyback rates, decreased transmission fees, should they offer a rebate on county/city permit fees, etc, etc,etc. What TYPE if incentives should they be? And while we're at it, how about addressing the second part of my above comment and sharing with us why you feel there should there be ANY incentives at all. Inquiring minds would like to know.— April 26, 2013 8:02 a.m.
Housing values in Western metro areas soaring
They are not a bit shortsighted, they are f*cking idiots. NOTHING goes up forever. Sooner or later, everything comes down, in varying degrees. Case in point. We own quite a few rental properties. Most of them are in Southern Cal. but we did have 3 in the Seattle area. Since late last year, we have sold 2 of them. The reasons were simple. At 62, we're pretty confident that we will likely see another housing bubble burst in our lifetime, so we decided we didn't want to deal with quite as many properties as we have, and decided to start paring down a bit over the next 5 yrs or so. We started with the ones in Seattle because all 3 of them are now above the valuations they had pre-crash; actually more like 2005-2006 valuations and with the market the way it is in Seattle, the easiest to sell.— April 25, 2013 9:27 p.m.
San Diego Gas & Electric rates are nation's highest
Don Bauder, Yes I agree that customers delivering power to the grid should receive credit for it. I also think it's doubtful the the utilities will be able to end NEM. But, you didn't answer the question. If the incentives are not good enough, as you have said twice now, what do you think they should be? I realize that living in Co., you don't deal with a CPUC administered utility. However, since you are on record as saying that you considered solar pv and rejected it due to the cost, again, what do you think the incentives should be, above and beyond those already offered, to get people like you to "get with the program", so to speak? And while I'm at it, let me play devil's advocate for a moment and take it one step further. If the answer is rooftop solar, as you have said, why should there be ANY incentives? Why should us tax payers help pay for someone else to install solar pv and reduce their electric expenses? Having a utility pay for excess electricity someone feeds back into the grid is one thing, but why should their be anything else? Why should we pay people when they are doing it not for altruistic reasons, but strictly for financial reasons? There's an old saying " To make money, you have to spend money". If someone wants to install solar pv to save on their electric bill, then let them spring for it and let the government, both state and federal, spend that incentive money on something a little more important, like say feeding hungry kids or providing them medical care. THAT I don't mind helping pay for.— April 25, 2013 9:07 p.m.
San Diego Gas & Electric rates are nation's highest
We first installed solar over 20 yrs ago. At that time, the only "incentives" were a lower electric bill and doing a little bit to reduce the use of fossil fuels. So I wonder then, can you be more specific about the "incentives" you would like the CPUC to force the utilities to offer?— April 25, 2013 3:12 p.m.
Report: Tony Robbins buys $25 million home in Palm Beach
A little more detail would have been nice: http://www.realtor.com/blogs/2013/04/01/is-this-t… and http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/news/world…— April 20, 2013 7:39 a.m.
710 Beach Club in Pacific Beach irks neighbors with sidewalk cafe
Dude, read it again. What they are saying is that when the cops were answering call at this club, they were out of service for any other calls. In other words, they were busy there and couldn't respond to another call.— April 19, 2013 11:03 a.m.
George Harrison II
Also, George Harrison didn't donate the proceeds of the "my Sweet Lord" re-release to the center. It was his family that made the decision, because as we all know George left us in 2001. Also, the proceeds didn't go to the center in Encinitas. They went to the foundation, which is based here in Los Angeles. And finally, it was only the proceeds from the U.S. sales; profits from the single outside of the U.S. went to the Material World Charitable Foundation, which he started in 1973.— April 19, 2013 9:26 a.m.