Letting The State Into Your Home

We recently received this in the mail from KCP&L:

Sounds nice, doesn't it?  Very reasonable, saves money, perfectly harmless, right?  Sure, it's harmless...if you don't mind the government controlling the temperature in your own house.  Make no mistake, that's exactly what this is.

That little phrase in there about how "we may synchronize your air conditioner compressor with thousands of others" is the key...by signing up for this you give them control of the temperature in your house!  Make no mistake, this will probably start out harmless enough, and sure, it may actually save you some bucks.  But boy, when it's 110 degrees outside and you find your A/C turned off for 15 out of every 30 minutes, are you really going to appreciate how wonderful this State control of your thermostat is?

Not me, thank you very much.

Now, let's project it out a bit further.  What happens if the lame duck session of Congress passes some form of cap-n-trade that jacks up prices on energy?  This is something that is very, very possible, and some political watchers think it is actually more likely to happen than not.  Even if Congress doesn't do it in the next few weeks, the EPA has the power to implement so-called carbon taxes at any point in time which will have the same net effect.  Either way, it will have a major impact on the price of electricity, gasoline, and pretty much all other forms of energy.

So, back to the State controlling your thermostat.  Let's say Congress behaves itself but the EPA does not and declares a carbon tax that ratchets up the price of electricity.  Now KCP&L can justify further control of your thermostat because they simply cannot afford not to exert such control over you.  At the moment, they say it's just June through September on hot weekday afternoons, but what's stopping them from expanding it to all-year round?  Nothing, as far as I can tell, and you know as well as I do that the government expands at every possible chance.  The more expensive energy becomes, the more restrictive the control will be until at some point you will be stuck with whatever temperature the State sets your thermostat on...all the time.

How does that grab you?  Think it can't happen?  Hey, there's a genuine food police now issuing fines in America, so why not a thermostat police?

You have been warned.  Don't go down this road if you don't like where it will end.  But hey, you can always come over to my house where it'll be nice and cool during the summertime.  I guarantee it.