June 28, 2012

Energy

UK Utilities allowed to profiteer

This graph of wholesale and retail electricity prices reveals how successive governments allow the big Utility companies to make bumper profits, increasing the price of electrciity when it is falling on the wholesale markets.

The UK industry buys and sells the energy produced in its power stations, or brought over from French nuclear plants via wire.  Different factors, such as a change in the price of oil, gas or coal, can affect the cost of creating energy.  But the retail price rarely falls, and usually goes up.  In 2008 for example, when prices collapsed due to the looming financial crisis, retails electricity actually spiked upwards in the UK.  The same happened in mid-2011 – wholesale prices fell and retail prices rose, and the same thing appears to be happening again. 

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Grants for Assistance to High Energy Cost Rural Communities

Federal Register – Announcement of Grant Application Deadlines and Funding Levels for the Assistance to High Energy Cost Rural Communities

SUMMARY: The Rural Utilities Service (RUS), an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), announces the availability of up to $7 million in Fiscal Year 2012 for competitive grants to assist communities with extremely high energy costs. This grant program is authorized under section 19 of the Rural Electrification Act of 1936 (RE Act) (7 U.S.C. 918a) and program regulations at 7 CFR part 1709. The grant funds may be used to acquire, construct, extend, upgrade, or otherwise improve energy generation, transmission, or distribution facilities serving communities in which the average residential expenditure for home energy exceeds 275 percent of the national average. Eligible applicants include persons, States, political subdivisions of States, and other entities organized under State law. Federally-recognized Indian Tribes and Tribal entities are eligible applicants.

This notice describes the eligibility and application requirements, the criteria that will be used by RUS to award funding, and information on how to obtain application materials.

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