The Doggy Diaries... gone to the dogs!

PG&E Sticking It To Residential Customers

This story is a few days old, but I've not been around to blog on it, so please bear with me ...

Just when people in the northern and central coast regions of California thought we were ready to pass out from the pain caused by the high price of the various forms of energy required in today's world to literally stay alive and earn a living for our families -- what with California's infamously inflated gasoline prices and the through-the-nose prices we pay the utility companies to keep our lights on and our homes warm -- Pacific Gas and Electric is going to hit us on the head yet again (think 2001) with a sledge hammer.

According to SFGate.com,

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Thursday that it is seeking to raise electricity rates by $599 million next year, with the heaviest burden falling on Northern California households already girding for higher natural- gas bills this winter.

What this means to you and I, as individual citizens living in homes that require electricity or natural gas, is an almost 11% increase (10.8% to be exact) in our PG&E bills starting next year over and above higher energy costs this winter. If you thought your PG&E bills were high back in the statewide power crisis of 2001, you ain't seen nothing yet! The increase we're going to get hit with next year will top those former highs.

If you live in California and must use PG&E as your home energy utility provider, you can thank former Governor Gray Davis for the part he and his administration played in stealing from your wallet.

... the administration of former Gov. Gray Davis negotiated a series of long-term power costs that requires the state to pay wholesale rates far above current prices on the spot market.

To be fair to Gov. Davis, to be sure, the brunt of this burden is laid at the feet of the boondoggle that is Pacific Gas and Electric. If you recall, PG&E was ready to file for bankruptcy, but some swell person(s) decided that we should save a company that couldn't keep itself financially solvent. "Hey, the taxpayers/little guys/powerless chumps will take care of it; they always do. Let's force them to pay usory rates to make up for our lack of good business skills." Remember that whole fiasco? Our "generosity" in bailing PG&E out of bankruptcy -- a good deed, one would think -- has come back to bite us in the arse as if we had done a bad deed. PG&E company officials admit the rate increases are necessary to help the utility emerge from bankruptcy.

A substantial portion of the added costs stems from a hotly debated agreement reached last year that enabled PG&E to emerge from bankruptcy. The bailout requires PG&E's customers to pay above-market prices for electricity through 2012.

If you can stomach the thought of reading it, the entire Associated Press story can be found at SFGate.com and the San Jose Mercury News. Additional coverage can be found at KESQ Palm Springs.

RedNova News attempts to lay blame on Hurricane Katrina for PG&E's rate increase, but if it's true that Davis had already brokered these higher rates and PG&E was guaranteed these higher rates to come out of bankruptcy, then Hurricane Katrina will serve as an exacerbator rather than the culprit.