My local natural gas supplier ask for a rate increase. Oh the red state said sure, so long as you don't hose the rich guys.
Why the rate increase? Global warming has given years of mild winters and record highs, such as yesterday 72°F, night time temps in the high 50's. Gas usage is low, at the same time fracking is creating a glut. If the market is to work, our rates should be going down down down, supply exceeds demand.
Well, doesn't work that way in the red states, not when capitalist have a monopoly on the market and in the state government. To ease the burden on people with big houses, rather than raise the rates on volume, they raised it as a service charge. Everyone saw an increase, even if you use nothing, the volume rate also went up, but not much.
Same thing happened here last month with water rates, but for a different reason, we are using too much water, the demand is putting pressure on the supply, so whats the cure, sha-zam, same cure, raise the service rate more than the volume rate.
In both cases, people who use large volumes of gas and water have a proportional increase smaller than those who use very little. I say it favors the rich and/or wasteful, same as the GOP tax plan.
People are going to get tired of being gouged. Vectern - former Southern Indiana Gas and Electric has the highest rates in the Midwest.
ReplyDeleteAnd some of that is to pay for those coal gasification plants that we don't need nor want.
Ron
Ron, Sure, but when. Oh I see I wrote "rich and wasteful", boy that was redundant, sorry, I need to learn to write more economically. Anyhow or who,,,,,,,these policies do not reward or incentivize conservation or common sense, at least not for those who can throw it all away.
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