Christian Science Monitor: Fuel cost now driving up electric bills

Fuel cost now driving up electric bills
Disconnect notices have risen sharply, indicating stress on more households.

By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 25, 2008 edition



New York - Rising energy prices are now squeezing consumers from a different direction: their utility bills.

Consumers from California to New York are facing rate increases of as much as 30 percent. Average homeowners' electric bills are now heading towards $70 to $80 a month in some states. And low- and middle-income residents are having trouble paying their bills as evidenced by a large increase in disconnect notices.

"Electricity's been cheap for a long time, it's just catching up," says Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association in Washington.

On a national basis, the federal Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that electric bills will rise 5.2 percent this year. But next year, they're expected to rise 9.8 percent.

"In the last two months, 20 to 30 utilities started requesting to have their rates increased," says Tyler Hodge, an electricity analyst at EIA in Washington. "With the rise in fuel costs, other utilities will follow suit pretty soon."

The fuel cost that has risen the most so far is natural gas, up about 40 percent in the past year. Last year at this time, the spot price of natural gas was $6 per million BTUs. Thursday morning, the price was $9.85 per million BTUs. In early July it reached as high as $13.31.

The rising price of natural gas is one of the reasons why Southern California Edison, the largest utility in California, recently warned customers it would be requesting a sharp increase in rates. Mid to high use residential customers can expect a rate hike in excess of 30 percent. For their overall system of 4.8 million customers, the average rate increase will be 25 percent. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0725/p01s10-usec.html

also able to get some sort of solar docking station for charging purposes.

Even a small car is going to need a few horsepower to be functional...say about 15 at a bare minimum. That translates to about 11 kilowatts.
An 11 KW solar cell array is gonna cost as much as the car.

to help people get their hands on them.

you are driving for the equivalent of less than a buck per gallon.

Since most charging will be done at night, using off peak,
currently wasted power, electrics are a win win.

for those still wanting something different,maybe this is the
answer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmqpGZv0YT4&feature=related

if my elecric bill was $80 a month.

We pay $200-300 every month in Fort Worth Texas area...for our 1300sqft small home.

And we don't "leave the lights on"

on edit: and that's with a cheap rate that I locked in with a "discount" utility.
So much for deregulation :sarcasm:

All-electric? That might not be too outrageous if so (no other energy bills)...we pay about that much in July and August but only about 50 in January...but then the gas bill is about a hundred.

electric baseboard back in the 70s. We never ever turned it on. Just used the wood stove in the kitchen and a kerosene heater in the living room. (Had to give in to the second one once it got cold enough that we could see our breath while sitting on the couch watching TV.)

and our housing edition is about 30 years old, and electric only.

Some are electric and natural gas.

But either way, most people pay more or less that every month for electricity, gas or not.
At least that's what I understand.

The electric bill, from my apartment before I married and moved into my husband's home, was about $70 a month at 550sqft. But that was only because I went through the apartment and changed out all the light bulbs to florescent on my own. (the complex provided light bulbs, but the bill was over $100 without the saving bulbs, so I replaced them on my own.)

on edit:
we have central heat and air. we have electric for air and heat.
the home I grew up in used natural gas for heat and water and electricity for everything else.

This winter is gonna be a real rough one for many. I've been reading how people who rely on oil heat can't lock in contracts as the oil companies are afraid to go even 6 months out in their cost projections...and that there will be a big crunch in getting things done this fall...and probably at a far higher rate than we're hearing predicted now. It won't just be the price, but the availability. And don't expect this regime to do a damn thing about it.

Natural gas has been on a steady rise for a while now. We've seen our heating bills double in the past three years and we're bracing for even more this year.

Let this be a warning to those who are swallowing the T Boner Pickens crap. While it looks so nice with those windmills and solar panels...it's the flim over his flam. His plan calls for replacing oil with natural gas...something he's got a lot of money invested in...thus you'd be putting natural gas in your tanks and use would go way up that would put $$$$ in his pockets.

The real victims of this rape of the American economy are those on fixed incomes...the elderly and disabled. I fear we're going to hear a lot of stories of bodies found in frozen homes and apartments this winter.