( - promoted by JRTOLBERT)
In a recent announcement, the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) will be holding public hearings in 2011 on a number of rate requests for electric utilities.
On May 25, public hearings on Appalachian Power's most recent rate requests will be held in Abingdon and May 26 in Rocky Mount. An additional four hearings will be scheduled in August, September, and October in Richmond.
The Norton City Council Chambers is the scheduled meeting place on May 25 for a public hearing on a rate increase request by Kentucky Utilities. Kentucky Utilities also does business in Virginia. A public hearing will then be conducted on September 13 by the SCC on the rate increase request in Richmond.
While it is arguable whether electric utility rate increases are justified in Virginia, what is not arguable is the need to require those who use more energy to pay more.
The Sierra Club of Virginia proposed legislation to tie utility rates to amount of usage in the General Assembly this session. The legislation would have set forward a tiered structure in which those who use less pay less with costs per kilowatt hour rising as usage rises. Unfortunately, the bill was unceremoniously defeated by special interests and their political allies without as much as a vote in the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee.
Opponents of the inclining block rate legislation claimed that the bill would have raised rates on the poor who live in inefficient housing. These claims are dubious at best however, as they do not match with energy usage trends nationwide. When we look at national trends we see a direct correlation between income, house size and energy consumption.
It stands to reason that those who use more energy should not be paying more as well. It is largely these same individuals who preach the gospel of the free market who turn their back on such principles when it benefits their bank accounts.
So please, by all means, raise the rates of energy in Virginia, just make sure you bill the wealthy in proportion to their energy usage. That way, the middle and working classes will finally be paying for their actual energy usage and not that of the wealthy as well. |
