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- From: jym@mica.berkeley.edu (EcoNet via Jym Dyer)
- Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive,alt.activism,alt.save.the.earth,talk.environment,ca.environment
- Subject: NEWS & ACTIVISM: Energy-Efficient Refrigerator Makers Excluded
- Message-ID: <EcoNet.1Sep1992.8am2@naughty-peahen.org>
- Date: 1 Sep 92 23:08:45 GMT
- Followup-To: alt.save.the.earth,talk.environment,ca.environment
- Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
- Lines: 59
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu
- Originator: jym@remarque.berkeley.edu
-
- [From EcoNet ecotopia.news Conference]
-
- Arcata Firm Left In The Cold
-
- by Ron Glick
-
- Sun Frost of Arcata, maker of the world's most energy-efficient
- refrigerator, has been frozen out of a national competition to
- find an energy-efficient refrigerator.
-
- The contest, organized by a nationwide consortium of utilities
- led by PG&E, is so designed that a manufacturer must have
- produced 100,000 refrigerators a year for the last four years to
- qualify--or have the financial wherewithal and the distribution
- network to do so.
-
- This cuts out all but a handful of large American manufacturers,
- who already control about 98% of the market and who probably
- would not be interested in a $30 million incentive if it means
- changing over a $200 million production line.
-
- Ironically enough, Sun Frost already meets the competition
- standard for energy efficiency. It also is the only refrigerator
- producer in California--and California utilities are providing
- the majority of the competition prize, out of ratepayer money.
-
- Refrigerators consume about 7% of the nation's electricity. A
- typical 18- cubic-foot model built before the Arab oil embargo
- of 1973 consumed upwards of 1,500 kilowatt hours (Kw-H) a year.
-
- Little Juice
-
- Today's models average 900 Kw-H or less. Sun Frost's comparable
- machine consumes only 220 Kw-H a year.
-
- California utilities will get to keep 15 cents out of every
- dollar's worth of electricity saved by the contest winner.
-
- That's because the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC)
- allows them to collect from ratepayers 15% of the money they
- lose from decreased demand due to increased efficiency.
-
- While $30 million means little to a company like General
- Electric, which made a $4.4 billion profit last year, to a young
- 18-employee company like Sun Frost it would mean a new plant and
- equipment, wide distribution, a reduction in unit cost--and many
- local jobs.
-
- Innovation and incentives used to be what got small companies
- started and kept them going. But PG&E and the other utilities
- seem to have forgotten about the spirit of American competition.
-
- To let the PUC know how you feel, write to California Public
- Utilities Commission, 350 McAllister St.,San Francisco, CA.
-
- (From ECONEWS, Newsletter of the Northcoast Environmental
- Center, 879 9th St., Arcata, California 95521, U.S.A., August
- 1992. Non-profit reprints OK with credit to ECONEWS; we like
- to see clips.)
-