• The new conspiracies? • Lifeguards’ skills The new conspiracies? There’s been a lot of local energy related stories in the news lately. KIUC informing us of their new “Smart Meter” installations, the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission providing their thoughts
• The new conspiracies? • Lifeguards’
skills
The new conspiracies?
There’s been a lot of local energy related stories in the news lately. KIUC informing us of their new “Smart Meter” installations, the Hawai‘i Public Utilities Commission providing their thoughts on: A) boosting the incentive for installing alternative energy equipment by forcing power utility companies to pay businesses and homeowners more for the excess energy they generate and B) conducting a feasibility study for the creation of a system (on-bill financing) where customers can finance expensive up-front costs of solar power installations through their electric bills.
After what’s happened to our economy, my skeptical mind kicked in. As a residential power consumer, a small smile came across my face initially because I’m currently installing a solar PV system. But I seriously doubt electric utility companies are just as happy.
I think the jury is out on the consequences of installing “Smart Meters,” but if electric utility companies were indeed forced to do “A” and “B” above, who’s going to absorb the cost for implementing these new services? The customers who couldn’t install them for various reasons. And who benefits from implementing these new laws? Probably the financial institutions.
Although I’m about to save big on my future electric bills, I’m concerned about where laws like these could lead when combined. If they are passed, Americans wanting to get on the Alternative Energy train are going to be the new target for loans they don’t qualify for. Unfortunately, the painfully unscrupulous, highly unregulated financial industry made mortgage loans to just about anybody and caused the mess we’re in today. By making the financing of alternative energy equipment too easy, the stage is set for creating a new loan crisis disguised as America’s movement to get off foreign oil.
Laws like these give financial institutions another way to throw us under the bus. Everybody knows financing an item increases its cost and contributes to a bank’s profit margin. Unlike loans for discretionary items people may want, power is a commodity no one can live without. Keep your eye on this one.
If that wasn’t enough to raise your eyebrows, how about that new $144/can/year garbage collection fee our county tacked on to our property taxes. Usually, businesses invest in new technologies to benefit their customers, raise their profit margins or both. Sometimes, the only benefit gained is a delay to anticipated cost increases. This new fee following their recent upgrade in the art of garbage collection does not compute.
It used to take three county employees to collect and dispose of my (practically unlimited) garbage. A portion of my property taxes paid for their services. Then the county initiated a “pilot” program where it took only one employee in his shiny new truck to empty my shiny new 96 gallon garbage can.
Well, the pilot program is over and the results are in. Now most of us will have to pay that new fee for the same service. Oops, I almost forgot. They no longer pick up my green waste. I suggest the pilot program was an absolute failure.
Please put the old style trucks back in service, give the jobs back to those two missing guys and eliminate the new fees. Otherwise, will someone from the county please explain to us the justification for placing a limit on the amount of trash I can have (now 96 gallons) and the increase in cost for less than the same services? This fee will cause more garbage to be deposited where it shouldn’t be. How much will it cost to clean that mess up?
Vince Cosner, Lihu‘e
Lifeguards’ skills
I love happy endings. In my ER job I have come to learn that they don’t always happen, but here’s one for today.
A few days ago our lifeguards at Ke‘e Beach were notified, by a witness who ran down the trail, that a man on the Hanakapi‘ai Trail had fallen and suffered a significant head injury. This occurred a few hundred yards up the trail.
We had three lifeguards at the Ke‘e tower: Tyler (Moore) Hale, John Cannack (Attack), and (Bob) Dylan James. They quickly assessed their resources and realized that even though they are beach lifeguards, they are … lifeguards.
So, one man stayed in the tower with his eyes on the water, one man hustled up the trail to the victim, and the third stayed at the trailhead, where radio communications could be monitored and relayed.
With their quick thinking and expert response, the man was carefully brought down to the trailhead, and soon enough the paramedics were there and transported him to the hospital.
His head injury, although serious, turned out to not be life-threatening. This all added up to a happy ending, and the victim was extremely grateful to the lifeguards for their assistance.
Although our lifeguards’ job description is for ocean safety, and there is therefore a limit to what we can expect from them on land incidents, it is a wonderful thing to have them in our environment, often in quite remote areas, with their expert skills and helpful attitude.
Monty Downs, M.D., Kaua‘i Lifeguard Association
