Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Obviously!

If there were a worldwide pandemic or catastrophe, most would think that the first duty of a state government (e.g. California) would be to provide whatever is necessary to care for the citizens of their state (all Californians). The well-being of the earth’s overall population would be a concern, but a secondary priority.

One would think that the Sacramento politicians would say, “We are going to take care of our own first, and then worry about the overall welfare of Mother Earth somewhere down the road. As the representatives of the people who have elected us, our duty is to make the caring for the citizens of California our highest priority.”
I hate to keep referring to “common sense” all the time, but obviously, this seems like common sense.
It’s no surprise for those of us that live in Southern California that this past August was the hottest on record. Maybe this is a result of global warming and maybe it isn’t. It will take a few years to establish any trend.
Let’s assume for a minute that this warmest August on record is a sign of things to come, and the summers are just going to get warmer. Where should the priorities of state governments be? Should their priorities be to try to help their own citizens, or to punish their own citizens under the guise of looking out for the “well-being” of the earth and all of its billions of people? One would think that the answer would be “obvious” with a capital “O.”
During an especially hot spell what do people, both the young and the old, do when the temperatures soars. They obviously turn on their air conditioning. Those who are young turn on the A.C. for comfort while those who are old also have to be concerned about keeping themselves safe. Perhaps in years past the seniors had found it necessary to turn on the air conditioning only a few times a year, but this August they found it necessary to turn it on every day, specially if they wanted to sleep. Again remember that these people are Californians. What would you think that the Governor, the other state representatives, and the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) would do? Obviously, these big advocates of “global warming” would have anticipated such a scenario, and would have made a contingency plan to deal with such a situation.
What has actually happened? Electric bills have skyrocketed. Individual bills have zoomed up out of proportion to the amount of kilowatt hours used. Whoa! That doesn’t seem fair, but that is what happened because of a tiered system of billing that punishes those who find it necessary to run their air conditioners.
A few basic questions:
What is a tiered system of billing?
Think of a tiered system as a power company’s version of a graduated income tax . . . the more electricity you use, the higher rate you pay for it. In addition to charging more as one uses more electricity, it charges more per kilowatt hour in the summer, as opposed to the winter.
In tier 1 the summer rate is 27 cents per kilowatt-hour, but if one uses 130% of its baseline allowance, the rate goes to 48 cents per Kw-hr. In other words if you find it necessary to turn on your air conditioner, you will pay almost double for that air conditioner electricity! If you use >400% of your baseline allowance, you pay a “high usage charge” at a rate of 55 cents per Kw-hr. In other words if as senior with a fixed income, you find it necessary to use your air conditioner every day, you may not be able to afford to eat like you usually do because your electric bill was double or triple what it usually is!
Why a tiered system?
The tiered system was initiated as an attempt to discourage electrical usage. Apparently someone  who “knows best” decided that we needed to limit our personal use of electricity. Why?? . . . probably for the good of the planet, i.e. to prevent global warming!
Baseline Allowance . . . what is that?
This is the amount of kilowatt-hours of electricity a home is deemed to need each month. “Deemed” by whom? Deemed by the CPUC in Nov. 2017 and this allowance will significantly effect 81,000 SDGE customers this summer who will have much higher electric bills.
What does SDGE, the local electricity supplier, pay for its electricity?
The average rate it pays is apparently 22.5 cents per Kw-hr., but as a company spokesman noted there are a lot of additional costs for SDGE, such as repairing underground lines and circuits, increased costs for wildfire safety, and increased costs for storage mandates because of state law.
Does California pay more for its electricity than other parts of the country?
Yes, a lot more! Even though it was hot all over the U.S. this year, everybody does not pay the same for their air conditioning electricity. Since about 2013 Californians pay more for their electricity than anybody else in the U.S. The average cost for residential electricity in the U.S is 12.6 cents per kilowatt-hour, while the cost in California is about 20 cents per kilowatt-hour. (The runner up state is New Jersey in which the residential cost for electricity is about 15.8 cents per kilowatt-hour.)
Could this be because California has moved aggressively against fossil fuel use?
Duh!  . . . Is the Pope a Catholic? The answer to both questions is obviously, “YES!”
Gary Ackerman of the Western Power Trading Forum stated, “the increased cost is in part due to mandates imposed by California policy makers.” These policy makers are the Democratic Legislators and Governor Jerry Brown. In Europe Germany has moved to “green” electrical production (solar and wind), and they now have the highest rates for electricity in Europe. No one should be surprised that Californians are following in the same expensive path as the Germans with very high rates for electricity, because both are strong advocates of “green power!”
There is a sad part of this “we know what is best for everybody, and so we will limit your electricity usage, or punish you if you use more than we think you need to.” The sad part is that it obviously punishes the poorest among us disproportionately. Has anyone seen or heard of a poor person putting solar panels on his house? Is it not true that the poor have to live further inland because they cannot afford to live near the coast? Is it hotter inland or on the coast?
The even sadder part is, “you haven’t seen anything yet!”
As long as the dum-koff California voters continue to vote Democratic, obviously, things will only get worse! SDGE has already asked for an 11% rate increase for 2019![contact-form][contact-field label=”Name” type=”name” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Email” type=”email” required=”true” /][contact-field label=”Website” type=”url” /][contact-field label=”Message” type=”textarea” /][/contact-form]

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