Reply #13: Answers cost money [View All]

[Boomer]

I'm fortunate enough to own my house, be mortgage-free, and have money in the bank. If there is ever a solar energy solution that is allowed in my state (so far not), and I can find someone local to install it (so far not), then I can probably afford to jump on the new tech bandwagon.

But I'm probably the ONLY person on my block -- a blue-collar working class neighborhood -- who could do that. Everyone else is living so close to the bone, or is renting, that when oil technology "retires", they'll simply have to do without. Period.

These are people who scrape together enough money to buy a $300 used car to get them through the rest of the year, that get hand-me-down refrigerators from their in-laws, who can barely meet their electric bill without letting another bill slide. These are not people who can afford to retrofit their old, frame houses with the latest technology or buy an electric car.

And it astounds me how blithely these people are ignored when discussing the promising future of green technology in this country. SOME people can take advantage of that option, but millions of people who are poor, or who live in areas of poverty, will not have access to this technology even if they could afford it.