Climate change comes with a high price

Interesting guest column today in the Washington Post, written by Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center and the author of "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming."

Click on the link above to read the whole article, which is very interesting, but below are some excerpts that we found particularly interesting.

...Imagine for a moment that the fantasists win the day and that at the climate conference in Copenhagen in December every nation commits to reductions even larger than Japan's, designed to keep temperature increases under 2 degrees Celsius. The result will be a global price tag of $46 trillion in 2100, to avoid expected climate damage costing just $1.1 trillion, according to climate economist Richard Tol, a contributor to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change whose cost findings were commissioned by the Copenhagen Consensus Center and are to be published by Cambridge University Press next year....

...Today, coal accounts for almost half of the planet's electricity supply, including half the power consumed in the United States. It keeps hospitals and core infrastructure running, provides warmth and light in winter, and makes lifesaving air conditioning available in summer. In China and India, where coal accounts for more than 80 percent of power generation, it has helped to lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.
There is no doubt that coal is causing environmental damage that we need to stop. But a clumsy, radical halt to our coal use -- which is what promises of drastic carbon cuts actually require -- would mean depriving billions of people of a path to prosperity.
To put it bluntly: Despite their good intentions, the activists, lobbyists and politicians making a last-ditch push for hugely expensive carbon-cut promises could easily end up doing hundreds of times more damage to the planet than coal ever could.

Phone scam — members beware!

Word is spreading across the electric co-op world of a billing scam that some co-op's are dealing with. So far, none of Cullman EC's members have reported such an incident, but we wanted to share this with everyone so you are aware and prepared.

Here is the e-mail Cullman EC received Tuesday morning:

All, just an FYI that NRECA is getting some reports from various states where co-op consumers are receiving phone calls from fraudsters posing to be from the co-op and asking the consumer to provide credit card or other financial account information and personally identifiable information over the phone. (Co-ops are not alone here, this is hitting utilities of all stripes.) There are at least two flavors of this scam -- one is to say the consumer owes on his/her account and will have service shut-off unless payment information is provided immediately. The other appears aimed more specifically at seniors. The caller claims the consumer can receive Federal stimulus dollars to pay their utility bills or some sort of a bill credit but the consumer must first provide his/her personal information (e.g. Social Security Number and utility account number).

As a reminder, here is a link to Cullman EC's bill pay policies. Please know that no employee from Cullman EC will ever call you and demand payment over the phone or make unsolicited attempts to get information about your credit card or bank accounts.

For more information on protecting your identity, visit the Federal Trade Commission's website page on identity theft.