From: dave@sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Newsgroups: alt.save.the.earth
Subject: Re: Refridgerators
Date: 21 Nov 92 22:25:14 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: ratmandu.esd.sgi.com

In article <1992Nov18.220936.1066@cssc-syd.tansu.com.au> philippa@cssc-syd.tansu.com.au (Philippa Morrissey) writes:
>I heard recently about fridges that are environmentally friendly.
>Anyway I am interested in finding out more. Such as can you
>buy them - who from and where and how much does the cost compare
>to standard fridges. Really I'ld be interested in any information
>about them at all.

Subject: Sun Frost of Arcata: too small to be "efficient"ly competitive
Summary: contest for an energy-efficient refrigerator:  only BIG BOYS can play
Keywords: corporate power/control/strangulation of innovation in society


  This story "takes the frosted cake:"  a contest, organized by a nationwide
  consortium of utilities to find an energy-efficient refrigerator, has shut
  out of the competition the only refrigerator producer in California who 
  just happens A). to meet the competition standard for energy efficiency--
  with very laudatory and efficient energy efficiency consumption--and B). to 
  be the only refrigerator producer in California--the state whose utilities 
  are providing the majority of the competition prize--out of California 
  ratepayer money. 
                                                             --ratitor

from m.a.p.:

Article: 6872 of misc.activism.progressive
From: jym@mica.berkeley.edu (EcoNet via Jym Dyer)
Subject: NEWS & ACTIVISM: Energy-Efficient Refrigerator Makers Excluded
Date: 1 Sep 92 23:08:45 GMT
Followup-To: alt.save.the.earth,talk.environment,ca.environment
Organization: The Naughty Peahen Party Line
[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.)
       
       
--

   I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes 
   me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . .  Corporations have been 
   enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the 
   money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working 
   upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few
   hands and the Republic is destroyed.

              --- Abraham Lincoln (quoted in Jack London's "The Iron Heel").
Newsgroups: alt.save.the.earth