Power Hogs Targeted by France in Big Brother Legislation - Bloomberg

In more promising news for all of those wishing bureaucracies were much larger, France's socialist are now going to establish rations of power  - at first for the purposes of pricing.

With smart meters that should be able to set the rationing system to specific times, and for specific weather conditions.

As Grégoire Wallenborn suggests in another article I've cited today, we can anticipate these complex changes to have very little impact on consumption.

Power Hogs Targeted by France in Big Brother Legislation - Bloomberg:

The law as it stands would create an incentive system for energy use. Households would be granted a base volume of power or gas considered appropriate for the dwelling. This volume would be determined by fiscal and social security authorities from tax returns and other documents such as income statements, studies of local weather and medical records.
Households meeting certain criteria could be among 4 million -- a fourfold increase under the planned law -- that will be eligible for reduced “social” rates for energy. The rest will have their prices adjusted according to volumes consumed.
Incentives, Penalties
The government and regulator will set the reward and penalty incentives under which households using less than their allotted base volume of energy get rebates while those surpassing the limits pay higher rates. The difference could be as much as 60 euros a megawatt-hour, according to the draft.

Read the full article at Bloomberg: