Posted on 05/03/2022 12:29:54 PM PDT by Mariner
Already frustrated and angry about high gasoline prices, many Americans are being hit by rapidly rising electricity bills, compounding inflation’s financial toll on people and businesses.
The national average residential electricity rate was up 8 percent in January from a year earlier, the biggest annual increase in more than a decade. The latest figures, from February, show an almost 4 percent annual rise, reaching the highest level for that month and approaching summer rates, which are generally the most expensive.
In Florida, Hawaii, Illinois and New York, rates are up about 15 percent, according to the Energy Department’s latest figures. Combined with a seasonal increase in the use of electricity as people turn on air-conditioners, the higher rates will leave many people paying a lot more for power this summer than they did last year.
The immediate reason for the jump in electric rates is that the war in Ukraine has driven up the already high cost of natural gas, which is burned to produce about 40 percent of America’s electricity. And supply chain chaos has made routine grid maintenance and upgrades more expensive.
...snip...
Natural gas prices have surged in recent months as U.S. producers have sent more fuel to Europe, which wants to use less Russian gas.
(Excerpt) Read more at daily.energybulletin.org ...
It could cost as much as $500 for your hottest month this year.
Hamsters & gerbils - start spinning!
Wait until Winter for people that use electric heat.
the gerbils are all at Richard Gere’s home..
Natural gas used to be burned off as a nuisance by-product of oil wells. No longer.
Some communities are banning installation and use of natural gas stoves and heating in favor of using electricity for cooking and heating (Berkeley comes to mind). Well, much of electricity generation comes from burning natural gas. Stupid leftist politicians.
Have you ever looked at Biden and thought... the wheel is spinning but the hamster is dead?
Despite the naysayers on FR, this is precisely why we installed residential solar power. 75% of our power consumed was flat-rate the day we got permission to operate our system.
It’s not about FREE or GREEN, it’s about controlling future costs.
Our electricity bill with Tampa Electric (”TECO”) went from $153.00 in December 2021 to $200.00 in January 2022. That’s a 35% increase.
We wouldn’t complain about 10%. We filed a complaint with the State of Florida Public Service Commission. They did nothing except rubber stamp millions of dollars in rate increases for TECO for the year 2022 in August 2021. After an in-home “energy audit” TECO offered us re-insulation of our attic with blown-in R14 at no charge.
We had been on the “Budget Billing” program for several years so we cancelled it. Then we received a notice that we owed TECO an additional $468.00 in arrears due to the program cancellation for past due energy charges. We are paying the arrears because if we don’t TECO will shut us off.
Without the program our last bill was $132.00 and the month was a hot one. Power companies never offer you any kind of program that does not benefit them.
We have nowhere else to go. TECO is a monopoly in Hillsborough County. In Pinellas County just across the bay from us, the electric bill for a comparable property is $89.00 per month.
Now we are turning off everything we can as often as we can without causing health issues so that we can afford to pay the damned electric bill.
Obama's war on coal is coming back to haunt many people. That combined with Biden's war on natural gas is a horrible mixture.
Explained, to those of you in Rio Linda: Obama forced many power companies to shut down coal plants and replace them with natural gas ones. Not only is that one transfer yugely expensive (in Alabama it was a beelyuun dollars to shut down a coal plant, build a replacing natural gas plant, and redirect the power from the new plant, a cost Alabama power users are still paying in their bills), but it also makes your power bill more susceptible to hikes in natural gas rates. Basically, the more the power company has to pay per cubic foot of natural gas to fuel their natural gas plants, the more you have to pay as an energy rider in your power bill on top of your main rate, other riders, and a tax. (At least that's how power bills in Alabama are calculated).
Hear! Hear! That's the reason I installed my system almost a year ago (58% of the power consumed).
From all that Free Charging of EVs ?
Since you’re in Florida consider solar.🤔
Natural gas prices have surged in recent months as U.S. producers have sent more fuel to Europe, which wants to use less Russian gas.The
So whats your break even point in years? I wouldn’t do solar now because if my break even point is 15 years away, way way too much can change in the technology over that time frame for ne to want to be locked into today’s solar panel tech.
I went with solar in October and have had no electric bill since January other than Duke energy’s “convenience” fees of $33 per month.
AND I am enjoying the $11,000 check the feds sent me for doing it. I do still have to pay the $43,000 loan for the system which is $150 a month.
FWIW.
“ Already frustrated and angry about high gasoline prices, many Americans are being hit by rapidly rising electricity bills”
Angry and frustrated enough to stop putting libtards in charge that cause it? 🤪
“Angry and frustrated enough to stop putting libtards in charge that cause it? “
Not just libtards.
Republican neocons too.
According to the hysterical democrats and some Republican, Americans don’t care a damn about how much anything costs, whether they will have something to eat six months from now; all they are concerned about is allowing birthing people to have access to abortions.
I’m not sure how much free charging there is anymore. The first couple years of Teslas were, but that was under 100,000 total cars.
The latest issue of Car & Driver indicated it’s cheaper per mile to put gas in a hybrid Camry than to charge a Tesla on the road.
Same here. We installed solar last year to hedge against rising prices. Our state went green and dictated that all energy come from renewable sources by 2045, including benchmarks along the way. I foresee huge increases in electric bills as our state and surrounding green states bid for electricity from nearby West Virginia which uses coal-fired plants. Our monthly bill now runs from $9 to $20, most of which is tax and a connection fee. Our highest bill was $120 for the month of January when our roof was covered in snow for three weeks. With tax credits, SREC checks, and savings, our system will pay for itself in less than eight years.
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