Last week, we got our first electricity bill with a full month of solar energy production on our roof. I was excitedly looking forward to a bill in which our production exceeded our consumption, and so we had nothing to pay at all. Zero for electricity! Well it turns out, that can’t happen in Maine. Apparently, in the not so distant past they changed the structure of delivery rate payments so that anything less than or up to 50 kWh is billed at a set rate. So no matter how little we use, I realized, we would always have to pay $11.51 per month.
But then, the very next day I read in the paper that rates were going up July 1st–but I couldn’t find the details anywhere until today–so now the basic delivery rate will be $12.88 for up to 50 kWh. (By the way, that would be .2576 per kWh if you used those 50.) The delivery rate for over 50 is going from .06302 to .066541. This is in addition to the actual energy charge, which for us with CMP standard offer is an additional .064430 per kWh.
I wouldn’t be so angry if I hadn’t spent a day at the state house at the end of April listening to conservatives arguing that solar customers were getting a free ride and being subsidized by all other customers. Here’s the thing I was thinking that day, assuming that we did have true net metering–where we only paid for the balance between what we generated and what we used–solar customers benefit the whole grid because we are adding energy to the grid during its highest use demands–summertime in the heat of the day.
And this is our earth we are talking about–we should be creating policies that encourage more and more renewal energy usage, or we won’t have a planet that can support human life anymore. Human life, anyone? At this point in Maine, only on the hottest summer days do we even reach 1% of the total energy used being solar energy. Shouldn’t we be talking about how to increase that to 50%? Not castigating those of us who have worked so hard to make a change, by calling us “elite” and acting like we are a drain on the rest of the customers?
Margy and I just spent a lot of money because we really care about the earth. It was almost impossible for us to do–we had to move to a new house and downsize our living situation to be able to afford the investment. But we really really care about the future of the earth. And we also hoped that as we grew older and had less financial resources, this would help us to get by.
But now I know that even if we use no energy at all from the grid, we must still pay 12.88 per month, to be able to be tied into the grid. And I understand that if everyone had solar panels tied to the grid (wouldn’t that be our dream future?) we collectively would have to find a way to maintain and support the infrastructure of the grid. But the attitudes of certain politicians in Maine are downright punitive towards solar customers. While I was web surfing trying to find the new rates, I discovered that two years ago, they were trying to add a $25 monthly surcharge for solar customers. It didn’t succeed that time, but everything will be reviewed again this coming year. Oh, and by the way, CMP is owned by the Spanish multinational corporation Iberdrola. So isn’t that the real issue–the privatization of public utilities and profits for the shareholders?
I am dealing with a bit of reality shock about all this–after the initial excitement about going for solar, I am discovering just how much of a battle is involved on so many fronts. It caught me off guard. I called our solar installer and he apologized for this not being clearer up front–he thought he had explained it before. But I am curious–to those of you with solar in other states: do you have any zero bills? How does it work where you live?
I also helped Margy get started in her office, which doubles as the music room–unpacking and shelving all the CDs and LPs. She has quite a few recordings from all stages of music history, including a Victrola from her grandmother (in our living room), vinyl albums, cassette tapes, and CDs. I’ve moved on to digital mp3s, but she preserves our music history!
I woke early in the morning, anxious about yet another radon test at our old house, as the rain was coming down and the wind was all stirred up. We’ve had two failed radon tests, before and after upgrades to our mitigation system. The other day, the mitigation folks were checking on why the radon levels had doubled after their upgrades, but everything seemed fine, and their instant test meter was showing no problems. They suggested that perhaps it was an anomaly, and we should retest.
I woke at 5 a.m. to a cat scratching at a closed door, and decided I’d better get up for cat duty, so Margy could get some sleep. I was glad they were finally exploring the house. It was so upsetting yesterday to see how traumatic the move was for Billie and Sassy. We had started them off by sequestering them in the basement bathroom where their litter boxes will remain. Sassy went into the cabinet and hid there, and Billie huddled behind the toilet. Margy and I took turns being with them and letting them be alone.
Our house is filling up with boxes and more boxes, as another helper (Thank you!) came today, and we packed and packed. Then, she left a lovely dinner that I could heat up in the oven. Yum!
Meanwhile, at the new place, Margy has been painting the closets and cupboards, so that they’ll be ready for us to fill with our clothes and dishes. (She took this picture after her work on one closet.)
In my sorting and packing and decluttering quest, I was all set to start tossing old file folders from the basement into the recycling bin, but it is proving harder than I first expected. I haven’t looked at these papers for at least ten years (since we moved into this house). Because of my allergies, I would have to wear a mask and gloves to go through them. So the simplest thing would be to just toss them out. But when I start to take a peak, they are like windows into the history of my life as an activist. Here is a whole file cabinet about ally work that I was involved in, related to the struggles of the Innu of Nitassinan in Quebec, most of it from when I lived in Boston.
Then there is the box I haven’t opened in over 16 years, with this evocative label: “Boston/and Peace Camp Time: Political Groups /Resources/Issues/Conferences.” I am guessing I threw stuff in there as I was packing to leave Boston, but I don’t even know what it might include.
And 3. A Training Toilet–that is actually for potty training a child on the big toilet, (and able to be used by grownups too). Why did we have one of those in the first place? We thought it might help during my attempt to toilet train our cats four years ago. (Sadly, it didn’t work out.)
Finding Our Way Home 