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Comment by gib444 | Hacker News Reader

Ramping up idle fees is how they will force the holdouts onto electricity. $120/mo is insane. We pay about $15/mo but I can certainly see it going up

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At $120/mo might as well just get a big propane tank and have a tanker come refill it every six to twelve months. If they’re not using it to heat the house a 500 gallon tank lasts a long time. Bonus points because you can use it as a generator fuel source for the inevitable California power outage and possible earthquake disaster.

On my issue, the temperature extremes are like 61-63 with an average of 62. LOL. I’m out of state 6 months a year. I could just shut off the gas. But the realization w the recent price increases really make me want to get rid of gas. I bet I save $500 a year.

They'll ramp up automatically as people switch to the new system and less people use the old system that's sized and priced as if everyone is using it.

In more organized places they are a) ensuring new subdivisions are gas free from the start and b) disconnecting large areas of older connections simultaneously to minimize overheads.

That's a choice, not automatic. The government subsides many, many things and that doesn't have to be an exception. They should just continue to advertise the absolute amazingness of the alternatives, train government backed installers, and use the carrot and stick method

Instead of just whacking people with the stick (and leave the installations entirely up to the private sector who have a terrible history of being conmen when it's the government providing grants to the businesses)

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