Free Republic

Consumer gas bills will go up 2.9% in November under an Xcel rate increase ... Adding utility rate increases one on top of another is called “pancaking” and Wednesday Colorado regulators tossed another flapjack on the stack, granting Xcel Energy a $64.2 million increase in gas rates. The increase in the basic rate follows increases in gas rates for rising fuel prices this year and to cover $500 million in costs due to a winter cold snap in 2021 that sent fuel prices soaring. The rate hike granted by the Colorado Public Utilities Commission will increase the average residential bill...

ANNAPOLIS -- State lawmakers voted yesterday to overturn Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s veto of the Democrats' energy plan that will postpone a 72 percent rate increase by Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. but forces customers to pay interest on the deferred charges. The company's 1.1 million residential customers will see their bills increase 15 percent on July 1 -- not the 72 percent increase to market rates set earlier this year in a wholesale electricity auction overseen by the utility-regulating Public Service Commission. However, the money customers save will still be owed to the company, and the customers will...

WASHINGTON - The Postal Service said Wednesday it wants to raise the price of a first-class stamp by 3 cents — to 42 cents — and proposed a "forever" stamp that people could use as hedge against future rate increases. The changes would take effect in the spring of 2007 if approved by the independent Postal Rate Commission. "A forever stamp would help ease the transition to any future price adjustments," board Chairman James C. Miller III said. Postmaster General John E. Potter said the agency would not be making a rate change if it were not necessary. "The Postal...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) - The post office is beginning the process of seeking a rate increase even as it awaits congressional action that would make the step unnecessary.</p> <p>The internal process of preparing for a new rate case has started, postal vice president Azeezaly Jaffer confirmed Thursday. The amount of any increase won't be determined until that analysis is completed.</p>