David Brauer List manager
MS> Hi all,
MS> I've seen a few people make comments about the forthcoming MS> "rate increase" that has been proposed by Minnegasco.
MS> While I understand that this will result in higher gas bills for some
MS> residential folks, I think the impact has been overstated a bit.
MS> Here's a summary of what's being proposed, courtesy of MS> Minnegasco's web site: MS> http://mn.centerpointenergy.com/ratecase/factsheet.asp
[...snip...]
MS> Now, in the comments I've seen about this, it seems there is a MS> lot of focus on the increase in the Basic Charge with little MS> notice of the decrease in the Delivery Charge.
[...snip...]
One concern I have with the new rate structure is that it will tend to discourage natural gas conservation. Essentially, moving costs to the delivery charge means turning more of the natural gas bill into a fixed cost. If this is done enough, then it's going to tend to encourage consumers to abuse the resource, for which they are going to pay, whether they use it or not. E.g., if you're going to be paying for a hunk of natural gas in the summer *anyway*, why not take a bunch of nice long, hot baths. The problem with this is that natural gas demand is continuing to rise, as we try to clean up the air by replacing coal-fired plants with gas-fired. So why not a price structure that encourages conservation?
Also, there's simple self-interest. I'm sure that this will get squawks from the pro-business crew, but why the heck shouldn't consumers try to fight attempts to shift costs from businesses to consumers? We've heard a lot of complaints about that from the pro-business crew, but I haven't heard of any cases, where they just said, "yeah, it's fair for us to bear a higher percentage of the <your choice here> cost burden." Why is it somehow evil for individual citizens to fight for their own interests in the political realm, but laudable when business owners do?
--
Robert P. Goldman
ECCO
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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