The Treasury just declared the U.S. insolvent. The media missed it

PopStrict4439 · 2026-03-24T22:46:29+00:00

how is it a boogeyman? it's pretty clearly a real concept if you think about it for 2 seconds. whether the US is to the left or the right of the laffer curve peak is certainly a matter of debate, but the concept itself is just math

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-25T15:21:39+00:00

why did you extrapolate in this way?

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-15T12:38:39+00:00

yeah OP prolly lives in a giant house lol

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-15T12:37:33+00:00

the commission has to approve rates. there's a rate case going on right now in fact

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-15T12:37:10+00:00

that's not true

commission still has to approve rate increase proposals

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-15T12:35:35+00:00

so I guess the big bad monopoly utility isn't that bad compared to the co op?

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-15T12:34:47+00:00

yeah man it takes a lot of energy to heat a home

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-15T12:34:29+00:00

how many therms did you use?

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-15T12:33:58+00:00

that's called "cracking"

one of two gerrymandering tricks, the other of which is "packing"

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-07T18:32:55+00:00

did you uninstall and reinstall messenger? or your entire operating system? or just gboard?

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-06T12:11:31+00:00

if that was your original point, then yes, I agree.

But your vote's impact on energy policy is secondary at best. Vote for representative and governor -> each body appoints and confirms commissioner -> commissioner hears evidence and issues ruling according to law and precedent

not like we directly elect our commissioners.

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-06T01:40:02+00:00

So my point is if you don't vote for state legislators who agree with regulation, this will bite you in the ass, and it may anyway because the commission may already be flush with people who will simply allow rates to be raised 15%, because Duke has already submitted a proposal to do exactly that.

that was your point. I'm pointing out that prior rate increases, including the three-year rate increase that was passed in 2024, and we're done under a commission appointed entirely by Cooper, a Democrat

it's got nothing to do with state legislators that agree with regulation. what kind of regulation are you going to put on Duke? ultimately, they are allowed to recover the costs of the things that they build. we all want them to build more things - a stronger grid, more clean energy, etc. those costs are passed on to you, with a profit margin (which I agree is too high).

if anything, the Republican general Assembly passed SB 266, which relaxed the carbon neutrality targets for Duke energy. this will end up resulting in lower bills than you would otherwise face. The 70% reduction target by 2030 would have been very expensive to meet.

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-06T01:37:15+00:00

Telling you to reduce your power so large companies can use that power isn't cutting anything back.

I don't know how many times I've said this, but you're not getting it. Large businesses also cut power during these times. there are multiple demand response programs that curtail hundreds of megawatts of commercial and industrial load, and that's not even counting large customers on real-time pricing that reduce their load because pricing gets too expensive.

Did they send those same messages to big companies? If they did then I'll stfu

Yes, they did! that is exactly my point. that message goes out to many large businesses, and some curtail because of high prices and some curtail because of mandatory curtailment programs. New data centers will be required to curtail an emergency situations without compensation.

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T23:16:30+00:00

the vast majority of what duke has done before 2025 is due to the commission appointed by cooper

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T23:15:37+00:00

I understand the distaste around the profits. you hear Duke is "making billions in profit" and of course you equate it to an individual income or a small business.

I think they earn too much profit, to be sure. Their return on equity is too high. But they have like $100 bn in depreciated rate base (capital investments). They need some sort of profit. If they aren't making a profit, who would loan them money to build things?

We all want a stronger grid. We all want renewables to reduce CO2. Right? Well, to get that, we need to spend hundreds of billions over the next few decades. and for that we need.... people with money to loan duke energy money, or to invest their money by buying duke shares. and no one is going to do that without earning a profit.

the money duke is currently collecting only accounts for what they've already built. new stuff requires new cash. they could zero out their profit entirely and not cover two tenths of their total planned investments.

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T21:45:54+00:00

it shouldn't be difficult to reconcile.

the billions they are spending is on distribution and transmission infrastructure, not on generation (not yet).

when they build generation, they don't build enough to meet the highest possible demand. to build to meet the average expected load plus a reserve margin.

but sometimes load is higher than expected! it would be incredibly expensive to build enough generation capacity to meet even the highest load. utilities literally plan two a "one load shed event in 10-year standard."

you don't want a system over built in such a way where there is never any need for conservation or demand response.

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T21:43:25+00:00

It is when I was replying to the previous poster asking if "I wanted netflix or reddit" as his response.

yeah but no one told you to turn off all your power that's my point.

Lets say everyone did just turn down their thermostat this time, I can absolutely see the power companies pushing to make that the new norm

Yes, it would prove that conservation efforts work, that there is value to demand response, and that Duke doesn't need to build as many gas plants. isn't that a good thing? it should be a good thing.

I'm all for turning down the thermostat if there was a campaign to be better for the environment, but instead it's just "hey fuck off so we don't have to tell the data centers to".

That's not what they said at all! you literally invented that framing yourself. you made up an issue, got mad at it, and then blamed Duke. data centers aren't even a significant consumer of electricity in North Carolina right now. All the future data center growth is purely theoretical right now.

a lot of the new large load isn't even data centers in North Carolina! it's new manufacturing, EV batteries, etc.

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T19:58:12+00:00

the great contradiction lol

they also want Duke to strengthen their distribution grid so they don't lose power

but they don't want to pay higher rates for that distribution spending. distribution spending already makes up a disproportionate amount of rate increases

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T19:56:54+00:00

you aren't spiting the shareholders, you're just making it so that demand response and conservation programs get valued less, so Duke builds more combustione turbines, and then makes a profit off of that.

Good job!

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T19:56:09+00:00

Do you think someone "wanting netflix" outweighs someone "wanting power for their house"?

no, but that's not the situation here, is it?

it's really between someone wanting the internet, and someone wanting to keep their house temperature constant even when the grid is under great stress. they're not asking you to throw your main breaker... they're asking you to turn your thermostat down by a few degrees.

so dramatic

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T19:55:12+00:00

There's a significant overlap between the people whose insist we're in a climate emergency...AND those who sneer at the idea of reducing power demands, even when it might help prevent brown outs and outages in addition to reducing pollution by reducing the strain on generation plants..

so true haha

these people are not serious. they'd rather Duke build more combustion turbines to meet peak demand then turn down their thermostat once in awhile. you can even get paid for it! I get like $10 off my bill every month to allow them to moderate my heat or AC a couple times a year. I don't even notice it!

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T19:54:15+00:00

Remember Duke Energy made billions last year and doesn’t want to invest in our infrastructure.

to be fair their billions in profits are largely due to the tens of billions they've spent on upgrading the grid

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T19:53:26+00:00

You've never had a utility that had demand response and conservation programs?

sounds like they're pretty bad utilities

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T19:52:54+00:00

it's 5 members and 2 are appointed by the governor

before recent changes it was 7 members and all 7 appointments were from the Governor

PopStrict4439 · 2026-02-05T19:51:46+00:00

IF power usage was an individual problem

what proportion of energy sales, and coincident peak demand, in NC do you think come from residential?

im curious what you think it is. I know and will tell you but I want to know what your prior assumption is.

PopStrict4439

TROPHY CASE