[p2p-research] does green capitalism manufacture artificial scarcity ...

[Samuel Rose]

I can buy that Enron took advantage of a situation, but I also agree with
Vinay that it seems pretty absurd that Lovins was in on some kind of deal to
help Enron cash in on it.

It could very well be, from the National Resources Defence Council
perspective, that they were able to lobby California to reduce the burning
of coal and oil mostly out of concern of pollution and greenhouse gas
emissions curtailment, and that folks liek Lovins are also simultaneously
active in ramping up solar, wind, etc to cushion the demand. I don't think
Lovins and Enron were working together, but that Enron took advantage of the
situation, probably. If Enron had not been in the picture, there probably
never would have been blackouts, etc I think it is more likely that Enron
tried to mask their scarcity-creating reductions behind these environmental
reductions that they already knew were happening, to scam people, and make
money.

On Sat, Oct 4, 2008 at 5:56 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Dear friends:
>
> What to think of this:
> http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-09-02-heartfield-en.html
>
> It's basically a critique of higher energy prices, I find the critique very
> weird, and would appreciate any commentary,
>
> Not building more power plants, distributing solar and wind energy locally,
> and hiking up prices is all seen as a plot to manufacture artificial
> scarcity by 'green capitalists'
>
> I also don't see the author offering any alternative,
>
> Excerpt:
>
>
> The old-fashioned market incentive for energy efficiency is the savings
> people make on their bills when they insulate their homes, or turn down the
> air conditioning. Businesses, too, have every interest in keeping overheads
> low by using the energy they pay for wisely. Normal prices would give
> customers the incentive to reduce their electricity consumption.
>
> But amazingly the Enron-Lovins model of restricting supply is the one that
> is being adopted around the world. Utility companies are rewarding consumers
> for reducing their consumption from central power stations and encouraging
> domestic-sited energy generation, through windmills and solar panels.
> Playing on Californians' distrust of the power companies, the Environmental
> Protection Agency is planning to add solar power to one million new homes –
> paid for by another surcharge on utility bills.[8]<http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-09-02-heartfield-en.html#footNoteNUM8>In Britain, the government is introducing regulations to make all new homes
> carbon-neutral. The current goal of carbon-neutral homes reverses the
> division of labour that saw specialised energy producers distribute
> electricity, turning it into an eighteenth century cottage industry. The
> simple economic lesson that mass production avoids reproduction of effort
> has been lost. Nothing could be more wasteful, or more certain to create new
> scarcity.
>
> California's "negawatt revolution" is only one of the more extreme versions
> of the way that green priorities work in tandem with profiting by
> manufacturing scarcity. South African radical Dominic Tweedie argues that
> recent electricity blackouts there happened because of "a campaign to impose
> artificial scarcity". The failure to build power stations to meet the
> growing demand from South Africa's black townships was not recognised as a
> problem by activists there because they bought into the green prejudice that
> social aspirations could be met by redistribution alone, at the expense of
> increased output. Now supply companies are hiking up prices to the people
> who can least afford them.
>
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