Last year in the council decided it's time that we all turn green and soon it'll be time for all of us to start paying for the council's foray into social engineering. You see the council has decided that scientific consensus should translate into the rest of us paying for expensive 90% efficient heaters for our homes when when our current furnaces need to be replaced.
The ordinance (O-07-73) sponsored by Councilors Benton, Cadigan, and former Councilor and Congressional candidate Martin Heinrich, was passed unanimously last September and goes into effect in April.
Replacing that broken furnace is about to get more expensive in Albuquerque.According to the Journal story, the city has mandated that you will have to be paying $400 to $900 more to install a furnace whether it's a new installation or a replacement; that's somewhere between 25% and 35% more than installing an 80% efficient furnace. What's interesting is that Comrade Benton tries to make a market argument (something he knows absolutely nothing about) to appease those of us who understand that we will be paying for his social agenda.
Requirements that go into effect April 1 call for homes to have 90 percent efficient furnaces. The rules apply to new homes or people who replace the furnace in their existing home.
Benton suggested the cost of 90 percent efficient furnaces may come down.What?! What the #$@% is competitive about mandating high end expensive furnaces? Here's a refresher course on market economics, when choices are limited costs go up. When government mandates, costs go up. Councilor Benton is restricting the number and variety of heating units available by mandating a specific efficiency in order to reduce carbon emissions which have not been proven to have anything to do with global warming. The result is predictable - higher costs for consumers.
"The market is going to change," he said. "People will start to get competitive with high-efficiency products as time goes on."
The folks over a Scott Ruch Heating, Air Conditioning, Plumbing and Electrical claim that the new heaters will save you money and make your house "more comfortable" and more evenly heated. However the savings according to the federal government, will average about $10 a month. In New Mexico that's probably no more than $30 a year, which means that it will take more than 13 years to pay for the increased efficiency and more likely 20 to 30 years. Your new furnace will probably need to be replaced long before the savings pay for the upgraded unit.
We also have a hard time believing that a new 90% heater heats a home more "evenly" than a new 80% model. Efficiency is a function of transferring heat from the furnace to the heated space rather than losing it through the exhaust. Even heating in a forced air unit would have more to do with air flow than with firebox efficiency.
Now let's take a look at the unintended consequences. Since the cost of replacing a furnace will be higher starting in April, there will be a rush on 80% (or less) furnaces. After April, people who weren't able to make the switch to a new 80% model will simply keep their old inefficient models as long as possible - a course of action that can even be life threatening.
In addition, some people will simply buy a cheaper model from a vendor outside the city limits and either install it themselves or have a contractor who's willing to "bend" the ordinance a bit and install the banned furnace. These are just a couple of the predicable unintended consequences - there are bound to be many more.
It costs a lot to be green and we don't believe that the citizens of Albuquerque should be forced to pay for the council's collective faith that man is at fault for so-called global warming. It's silly, it's foolish and it's an abuse of government power.
13 comments:
More big brother is the way I see it. And if you rush to get the 90% furnaces now the price is going to be inflated. Now, those would be another product to buy stock in. I'm sure are pals are jumping on the band wagon right now.
This whole green thing makes me sick! And some of these projects were to be funded by the 1/4 cent public safety tax. I'd like to see how much money that generates in a day and where it goes.
I want to put a residential windmill in my backyard & generate my own energy, and possible have excess that I can get paid for. I'm looking into it, but I can only imagine the red-tape of permits and the like. Unless I have extra money to give to Marty & his group. If he were truly "green" he'd support such a program.
C'mon, dumb ass public. Stop just sitting there licking your behinds and revolt against this latest social agenda. Where the !@#$% are we living,Stalingrad?
Benton, have you thought this through? Of course not.
Listen to the Villenucci show today. Nobody is going to abide by this bullshit. We have to pay fees for having an alarm, animal ordinances, red light/speed fines, no smoking anything anywhere,don't drive anything but some look a like commy car, tear out your grass and put it on your roof.
Now lets all work a chain gang to pay for your little indiscretion with red lights and speeding, WHILE the murdering, raping, drug dealers sit on their behinds watching TV at the county jail.
I think we should all be able to purchase one of those prisoner
F_ _ks, so they can work off OUR traffic violations.
By the way, when will we see Jason Daskalos working off his bullshit?
those criminals aren't sitting on their butts in jail, watching TV. Most those felon's, murder's, rapists, pedophiles and the like are sitting at home on their nice cozy couch watching their big screen TV's. Or searching the internet for kiddy porn.
But God save me if I forget to send in my dogs license on time. A $4.00 fee turned into $15.00's worth of late charges. And be late on a red-light camera violation, take a guess?? $450.00, and that's no BULL!!!
Our city politicians are bending us over. We need to get these creeps out.
Yah, Marty has jumped on the AGW wagon- hook, line and sinker. As is typical with green fanatics he comes up with goofy ideas and goes overboard on emissions. Look, I am sensitive about the environment but lets not get all hysterical and loose sight of economic sense. The Earth's emissions of CO2, even considering just variability, far overshadow human emissions of the gas.
Here is a site that has a book and video that really shows the relationship between CO2 and climate change- aka global warming. It's one of the best presentations I've seen so far. If you have a high speed Internet download the wmv version as the quiktime version audio is bad.
www.climate-skeptic.com/2007/11/more-ways-to-vi.html
Climate_Video_What_is_Normal.wmv
And here is a link to a ton of good articles on global warming
http://tinyurl.com/3yop6n
The science is being politicized and distorted by politicos who seek to either benefit by money, position or power on both sides of the fence. It's true what they say that freedom isn't free, you have to guard it and watch it to make sure it doesn't get hijacked or compromised, and the politicos are certainly trying to do that on both sides of the fence. Change for what?
Vote them out(?), yes. But what do we do in the meantime? (two years)
I think we can find about 5 beds at the county jail for the top ass holes that are fleecing us at City Hall.
Maybe sooner than they think.
"...It's silly, it's foolish and it's an abuse of government power. ..."
And that is the modus operandi of Democrats everywhere. Keep in mind that to be the Greenest Mayor in all the Land, our very own Almighty Alcalde had to fudge virtually every number there was. Does anyone think that the same busy-body Socalists with an agenda to control every aspect of our lives (universal health-care; taxes on fat, sugar, pets, etc; requiring State workers to use the RailRunner; ad infinitum) are promulgating only the unvarnished facts in their, oft times screaming, arguments???? Anyone who does must be drinking their Kool-Aid, no doubt from an eco-friendly, corn-based, Dixie-Cup!
Deborah James has more information. Contact her
Hey, I have an idea. Can we vote for YOU for Marty's job? I like your ideas SO-O-O much better than the current load of crap we're getting from these jokers in office.
Slight correction. The criminals (rapists, pedophiles, drug dealers, etc.) aren't merely at home watching TV. They're busy scamming our money. I'm talking attorneys, judges, and "court officials". It's no secret that they are the ones in charge of running the drugs and protecting those that get "caught" by making sure they don't do jail time. . .
Wow, your right.
They're right here under our nose.
They go to work every day at City Hall.
Why always blame the Dems? The Mayor's position is non-partisan. Why? Who knows?
Since the Mighty one is saying the city charter is unconstitutional regarding term limits, maybe we could get the election changed to be partisan. Like the rest of the US, a Democrat against a Republican. That way a candidate would have to win by a majority, not just 40%. No wonder most people in other states think NM is in Mexico.
Just what does Deb James have? If you call her, it better be before 3pm or she'll be sloshed. I know I have a tape of her screaming at me over the phone, drunk off her boney little butt.
Her hours are best between
11PM & 4 AM
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