Posted by
Dave Kooker on Friday, February 15, 2008 11:21:02 AM
I have always been curious how much money JEA (Jacksonville Electric Authority) spends for advertisements on television, radio, and other media. JEA is Jacksonville Florida’s utility provider for electricity and water/sewer. They constantly broadcast how the local consumers should & how-to conserve our electricity and water. JEA broadcast their advertisements almost as often as the annoying local car dealerships that try to persuade you that this is the largest and best car sale that the consumer will ever experience this weekend only.
I am in accordance of with the idea of being careful with our available resources; I also do not like to observe waste.
The problem I have with a non-for-profit government entity asking its customers to conserve their use of JEA’s utilities is that this causes a reduction in revenue from the reduced consumption. Since the non-for-profit government entity does not abide by free market guidelines, they can simply raise their utility rates to make up for the reduction caused by JEA’s persuasive message of utility conservation. One way or another, the non-for-profit government entity is going to receive their minimum anticipated revenue.
Why conserve on utilities thinking that you are doing your part to be ‘Green’ if the utility company is simply going to increase the utility billing rate per unit on the consumed utility to make up for the loss of revenue from conservation?
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