On Wed, 16 May 2001, Doug Pensinger wrote:
> We have always encouraged alternative sources here and have several
> wind farms and at least one large scale geothermal plant. We have
> high gas taxes, but I think that a 250% tax would be a little silly. A
> 40% rate increase was imposed the other day, I'll be paying about
> .17/Kwho. What are you paying again? Maybe we should charge a
> premium for states with the highest per capita use.
I'm not getting my electricity from the same outfit that Dan M. is, but my
most recent electricity bill had a breakdown thusly:
First 500 KWH @ 0.0355
Additional KWH @ 0.0602
Secondary Fuel Adjustment @ 0.02682
(this was for ALL KWH)
So I end up paying $31.16 for the first 500 KWH, and $0.08702 for each
additional KWH. This isn't even half of what you're paying. (There's
also a $6.00 customer charge, but that's not dependent on how much
electricity I use, just that I get to use it.)
BTW, my husband has been reading everything that comes into the house
regarding the electricity situation in California and in Texas (he's
working for a California company, and when he goes out to meet with
co-workers, he wants to have an understanding of what's going on with the
power problems before he shows up), and he told me that the Texas grid is
isolated from the rest of the US. Something about not wanting federal
regulation messing things up causing the state to be careful about not
giving the feds a reason to get involved in the first place. Given that,
I don't know that any outside power could enforce having people and
businesses in Texas pay more for electricity based on per-capita
consumption or anything.
As far as gasoline prices in California go -- I saw a montage of
California gas station price boards on a national newscast earlier this
week, and man, I'm sorry. I'm not going to bitch about gasoline prices
here anytime soon. (The best I saw had a Californian paying $0.60 more
than me for a gallon of basic unleaded.)
Julia
