WHEN THE ECONOMY took a nosedive, the cost
of gasoline went along for the ride. In Emporia,
the price of auto fuel dropped from its high near
$4 a gallon to less than half of that. The cost of
gasoline has risen in the past couple of weeks, but regular is still
below $2 a gallon.
That does not mean everything is hunky-dory for consumers
when it comes to energy. For customers of Westar Energy, the
price of electricity will rise soon, and it is expected to keep rising.
The Associated Press reported this week that the $130 million
Westar rate increase approved in late January by the Kansas
Corporation Commission is likely to be just the beginning. The
company is expected to apply for — and get — $80 million more in
rate increases in the coming months.
What’s the extra money for? Well, part of the answer is sitting
not far outside Emporia. The money would be used to cover the
investment Westar is making in its transmission system, pollution
controls and wind farms. Included on the list is the Emporia Energy
Center, the gas-fired peak-load plant recently opened in Lyon
County.
David Springe, the chief attorney for the Citizens Utility Ratepayers
Board, told the AP that new state laws and regulations
make it unlikely that the $80 million bump in rates could be successfully
opposed.
“It’s pretty much a done deal,” he said. “Your rates are just going
to keep going up and up and up. The system right now is set up
to carry out any number of policy objectives, and the consumers’
wallet is there for the picking.”
The policy objectives he refers to — providing a modern transmission
system to reliably meet the state’s needs and reducing
pollution from power generation — are not bad aims. But unless
the federal government steps in to ease the burden as part of the
Obama administration’s push to restore the nation’s infrastructure,
Westar is going to have to get the money from the only source it
has — its customers.
These increases come as the state’s unemployment rate has
risen to 6.2 percent and an even greater percentage of Kansans are
not sure they’ll be able to pay the bills they already owe.
But Westar customers are not completely without recourse
when faced with rising electric rates. They always have the option
of using less electricity.
We are well into an era when energy costs will continue to rise,
but most people still have the habits they formed in the old era of
cheap energy. Houses and businesses are still overheated, overcooled
and overlit. Dozens of new electronic devices — computers,
television, kitchen appliances — continue to sip away at the power
grid even when they are turned off.
Conserving electricity is not difficult and it does not require
families to dress in rags or move into tents. Conservation is, for the
most part, a matter of deciding that money matters and paying attention
to where it goes.
The more you conserve, the less of that $210 million rate increase
is going to show up on your Westar bill.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor
tbluma (anonymous) says...
Unless the obama administration steps in and eases the burden??????
What makes the difference? We will either pay higher utillity bills or higher taxes. I would prefer the utillity bill. At least I know where the money is going and it will stay in the state rather than giving it to the gov. and not know how they are going to spend it as usual.
April 4, 2009 at 12:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
shoehorn (anonymous) says...
I can hardly wait until the new cap & trade gets put in place.
April 4, 2009 at 3:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
alfalfa (anonymous) says...
One place people may conserve, is to quit taking newspapers. I wonder if Pat Kelley ever thinks about that? I imagine that many homes can cut back a little bit on their electrical usage, but I doubt enough to make up for the rate increases that are forecast. I think it would be poetic justice for all the liberal newspapers around the nation to go broke because their pet projects and pet President make ordinary folks have to enact their own set of budget cuts.
Out here in the "outback" I use to take the Gazette, got it a day late at a higher price than those who get it delivered to their door the same day. Because of the internet, and because the Gazette doesn't seem to represent the more conservative view that is actually in the majority in this area, I decided it was something I could live without. Perhaps the net result of higher energy costs and higher taxes brought about to create the utopia Obama and Pat Kelley envision for this world will be organizations like the Gazette going the way of the dinosaur, I wonder if that is ever thought about in the liberal halls of the Gazette? Maybe they better turn off their lights more often.
When you really stop to think about it, newspapers are very environmentally unfriendly think of the trees, and the trash, associated with them, as well as the energy needed to print and deliver them....maybe to save the environment we need fewer newspapers???
April 5, 2009 at 12:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
hottopics (anonymous) says...
I don't get the paper for that reason. To much paper at the end of the week. If I miss out on something that was printed, someone tells me about it. But then again, without the paper, people are out of jobs.
April 5, 2009 at 11:26 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
bharz (anonymous) says...
My stereo & television are plugged into a power strip. When I go to bed or leave the house, the power strip is off. My thermostat is set to go down to 50 at 8:00 a.m., when I leave the house, back up to 68 when I return, and back down to 50 at 9:45 p.m. when I'm headed to bed. I unplug radios that use transformers and my cellphone and laptop computer chargers are unplugged unless I'm using them. When I leave my house for more than 24 hours, I turn my water heater down below the "vacation" setting. These aren't difficult things to do, but I have to remember to do them.
April 6, 2009 at 9:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )