Sunday, July 23, 2006
electricity
One wonders what's going on with electric companies and the public service commissions that regulate them (or don't). Laura muses about a recent hike in California, retroactive for the last seven months. Yikes. She wonders (as do I) whether the retroactive charge is legal on account of the service and product are already paid for. Meanwhile, on my side of the country, there's the ConEd mess in Queens where 25-50,000 people have been without power for almost a week with no light (ha ha) visible at the end of the tunnel. And where I live, the electric company just received approval for a 30% rate hike this year and each of two years after that, which borders on insane not to mention prohibitive. My favorite trick of our G&E company, with charges among the highest in the country, is when they tack on a cute little non-specific charge they call an "access fee". Last summer (any significance there?), the access fee was 3x the bill. Many voiced strenuous objections, both to the company itself and to the PSC. Imagine our surprise (not) when, two months later, we were issued credits for the exact amounts of the access fees. But something is very much amiss with electricity providing. Who to turn to when the public service commissions go along with the con?
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