Screwed by the power company!

Russ Steele

I learned a long time ago that Utility Companies are more inclined to screw their customers, rather than protect them. In the mid 1970s we built a house in Nebraska. It was in a development that was promoting all electric homes. We bought the Gold Medallion Kool-Aid supplied by the local power company who was building nuclear power plants and to promised almost to give us the electricity to heat our house, it was going to be so cheap. However, once all the homes in the development were sold the price of electrical power kept going up and up and up again. We organized a public meeting to discuss the deceit with power company officials. At the meeting they basically told us they held all the cards and we were screwed.

When we built the house we opted to put in a Franklin Stove rather than a draft creating fire place. After our meeting with power company, I installed a wood stove in the basement and turned down the electric furnace as low as it would go.  We heated the house with wood. Screw the power company!  The wood was provide free by the City of Omaha, but we had to buck and split the dead ash trees ourselves.

When we build out house in California, we were fully aware that we did not want to be captured by the power company. We build a passive solar house with wood stoves for the backup heat, just using PG&E for light and the appliances. However over the years, after the children left home, we were lulled into converting our wood stoves to natural gas. Bad decision, PG&E keeps cranking up the price of gas and electricity and we are now more vulnerable to carbon taxes.

Once again we are about to be screwed by the power company. Consider this from Kimberley Stassel. at the Wall Street Journal in Rent-Seekers Inc. "Climate-change legislation helps a few big utility companies, but costs most Americans."

It isn't often an energy company (of all things) gets to present itself as an environmental crusader, cozy up to Washington rulemakers, buy political protection, and pad its bottom line—all in one neat little announcement. So give Pacific Gas & Electric, PNM and Exelon credit for going for the gold.

The three utility giants have made news recently by quitting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Their finer sensibilities, they explained, would no longer allow them to associate with an organization lacking in environmental fervor. How dare the Chamber demand the Environmental Protection Agency be transparent about the science it is relying on to regulate all carbon energy use. Heresy! "As a company with a clear and strong position on the importance of addressing climate change," we must go our own way, lamented PG&E's CEO Peter Darbee.

Fortunately for Mr. Darbee, that way leads to the bank. As much as supporters of cap and tax would like to spin this as a new corporate ethic, the reality is less edifying. The lesson here is that big business political rent-seeking is alive and thriving.

Let me ask you, when PG&E is paying homage to Cap and Trade (Tax), who do you think will be paying the bill. You are right -- you are!  In the process PG&E will be skimming money off the top for the privilege of collecting these carbon taxes from every customer. PG&E is going to profit from Cap and Trade, and you are going to get screwed. ( My apology for the strong language, but lets not dance around the issue here, everyone understands "screwed") 

We built our south facing garage with the idea we may someday have to install solar panels. Maybe it is time to screw the power company once again. We left the stove pipes in place and may once again return to heating the house with wood. Stay tuned!