We're staying up late watching the storm sweep across the Gulf, thinking of all the people in Louisiana who are probably experiencing a particularly painful brand of deja vu right now. It's surreal how quickly history repeats itself.
Mayor Nagin is calling this "the storm of the century," in defiance of anyone who thought that that particular storm had already passed, three years ago when 1,500 people died.
A friend of mine, newly arrived in New Orleans for a three-month stint with a political campaign, joined the evacuation today. She's fortunate. Nagin has also said that the city won't be able to provide emergency resources to anyone left behind.
Scary? Yes. But also thought-provoking. Over the past few months my husband and I experienced a string of thefts: my wallet was stolen, my identity was stolen, my car was broken into twice and then stolen. By the end of it, we were both starting to wonder whether God was trying to tell us something. And without wanting to in any way imply that storms are God's punishment or that they're deserved, there's a part of me that can't help but wonder: when one city is repeatedly hit by hurricanes, could God be trying to tell us something?
And if so, what?
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Friday, August 29, 2008
still hate georgia power
So yesteday I received a call from a reporter. He'd read this post and wanted to talk to me about the Georgia Power green energy program. He wanted to know what I thought it was, what I expected from it, and why I signed up for it. I don't think I was much help to him, though.
See, he's writing an expose of the fact that what Georgia Power calls "renewable, green energy" is actually methane gas from landfills. They might start using wood biomass soon, which I guess is a little better, but still not "green" in my book. Even though their website talks about wind and solar, what they're actually doing isn't even close to that.
This didn't surprise me, though, because I don't expect anything less from Georgia Power. I knew this when I signed up for it, and I signed up for it, not because I thought it was really green, but because I wanted to send a message to Southern Company that there is a market for green energy in Georgia.
What I didn't know, though, was that the methane gas they're calling "green" is actually less expensive than coal. It's cheaper than what they usually use--but they're charging me a premium for it.
That didn't make me want to end my participation, but it did make me want to decrease my number of credits.
I'd been signed up for ten credits (what was I thinking? That's a lot of money!), so I decided to decrease it to one. I'll still be participating, but in a more symbolic way. After investigating the website and figuring out that I couldn't make that change online, I called Georgia Power.
It was only 9 in the morning, so the wait time wasn't that long. Not for the first customer representative. True, it took me about five or ten minutes to get through the automated menu and talk to a human being, but then I only had to wait for a minute or so. However, the first person I spoke with couldn't help me. He said he would transfer me, and he did--back to an automated menu. I went through the whole process again, this time waiting about two minutes on hold before I spoke to a person. This person told me I needed to call a different phone number. I called it and went through yet another menu, again. This time the wait was three minutes, but the person I spoke with, to my amazement, was able to change my account. She claims that she put it through today and it will show up on my next bill. Which I'll believe when I see it.
But the whole process took 45 minutes. Yep. I still hate Georgia Power.
See, he's writing an expose of the fact that what Georgia Power calls "renewable, green energy" is actually methane gas from landfills. They might start using wood biomass soon, which I guess is a little better, but still not "green" in my book. Even though their website talks about wind and solar, what they're actually doing isn't even close to that.
This didn't surprise me, though, because I don't expect anything less from Georgia Power. I knew this when I signed up for it, and I signed up for it, not because I thought it was really green, but because I wanted to send a message to Southern Company that there is a market for green energy in Georgia.
What I didn't know, though, was that the methane gas they're calling "green" is actually less expensive than coal. It's cheaper than what they usually use--but they're charging me a premium for it.
That didn't make me want to end my participation, but it did make me want to decrease my number of credits.
I'd been signed up for ten credits (what was I thinking? That's a lot of money!), so I decided to decrease it to one. I'll still be participating, but in a more symbolic way. After investigating the website and figuring out that I couldn't make that change online, I called Georgia Power.
It was only 9 in the morning, so the wait time wasn't that long. Not for the first customer representative. True, it took me about five or ten minutes to get through the automated menu and talk to a human being, but then I only had to wait for a minute or so. However, the first person I spoke with couldn't help me. He said he would transfer me, and he did--back to an automated menu. I went through the whole process again, this time waiting about two minutes on hold before I spoke to a person. This person told me I needed to call a different phone number. I called it and went through yet another menu, again. This time the wait was three minutes, but the person I spoke with, to my amazement, was able to change my account. She claims that she put it through today and it will show up on my next bill. Which I'll believe when I see it.
But the whole process took 45 minutes. Yep. I still hate Georgia Power.
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