Free Republic

Energy charge: All the costs, other than fuel, involved in producing and distributing electricity. Fuel charge: This includes the actual cost of fuel used to produce electricity. The company's two largest fuel sources are natural gas and coal.Then they say they are passing the fuel costs on to the consumer without making a profit on them. Only in Florida could a statement like that to consumers of the product you manufacture not be construed as patronizing, condescending, and blatantly dishonest. Why would you need to make a profit on your fuel expenses when the consumer is paying the entire fuel...

The utility’s 1.6 million Colorado customers will see their bills rise 4.4% — about $4 on the average residential bill — on Sept. 1 ... lectricity bills for 1.6 million Colorado customers of Xcel Energy will rise 4.4% — about $3.99 on the average residential bill — on Sept. 1, under a settlement approved Wednesday by the state Public Utilities Commission. In 2022, Xcel Energy, Colorado’s largest electricity supplier, filed for a $312 million rate hike, but under the settlement it will get an increase of $96 million. The reduced revenue figure was reached in a settlement between Xcel Energy...

New York (CNN) — Consumers are snapping up air conditioners, ice makers, pool floats and other goods to help them cool down in response to a brutal heat wave in the United States. On Amazon, sales of air conditioners increased 248% during the 30 days ending July 14, according to data from Jungle Scout, a data and analytics platform for Amazon sellers. Sales for fans grew 60%. Searches on Amazon for “single room AC units” and “portable misting fans” also spiked triple digits during the period, according to Jungle Scout. On Wednesday morning, a sun shade for car windshields was...

Whether you’re wrapping your Christmas tree in one strand of lights or adorning your home with a Griswold-like display, the type of lights you select can have a big impact on your electric bill. A strand of 300 white mini LED lights on the typical green wire is 21 watts, while the same style with incandescent bulbs is 72 watts. Using the formula above with the national average of 16 cents per kilowatt-hour and a display season of six hours a day for a month, using a strand of mini LED lights will cost you about 60 cents. A strand...

One in six American households is struggling to pay their power bills. High energy prices and persisting inflation are eating away at incomes. A total of 19.9% of all U.S. households reported that they kept their home at a temperature tha One in six American households is struggling to pay their power bills. High energy prices and persisting inflation are eating away at incomes. A total of 19.9% of all U.S. households reported that they kept their home at a temperature that felt unsafe for at least one month in the last year. ...

Long-term CTH readers might remember in 2014 when President Obama claimed U.S. families had been paying too little for electricity for too long. As soon as Joe Biden took office, he began implementing the Green New Deal energy policy that, (a) directly forces higher costs for energy; and (b) is now creating massive problems. In July I noted my own electricity bill had jumped 28% in a single month. That bill was followed by another almost identical increase this month. A review of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for July [Data Here] shows that nationally the same thing is happening....

Already struggling with a doubling of gas prices, massive food price increases at the grocery store and the pain of all costs for goods far outpacing any rate of wage increase, this type of uncontrollable increase in price of electricity is going to hit the middle class hard. Steve Cortes, a former aide to President Donald Trump, calls this the “backside of the Biden-created inflation hurricane.” The backside of a hurricane is the worst because it hits from the opposite direction upon already weakened infrastructure. The hurricane metaphor is apt because any increase in energy costs will be accompanied by...

If the Public Utilities Commission OK's Xcel’s largest ever rate increase, electric bills for Colorado customers will have increased 20% since the start of the year.. Xcel Energy has proposed a massive transmission project to help move power from rural areas to the urban Front Range. Xcel Energy is pushing for a record $344 million rate increase it says it needs to build a smarter, greener electric grid. But consumer advocates and state regulators are pushing back over the price tag. A major concern is that along with an earlier rate increase and other pending requests since the start of...

Many households in Germany are no longer able to pay their electricity bills. As a result, around half a million households are sitting in the dark. The sharp price increases for electricity and gas is leading to serious payment problems for more and more consumers – even to dark apartments. Because of unpaid bills an estimated 600,000 households in Germany had their power cut off in 2010, said the consumer watch dog Verbraucherzentrale Nordrhein-Westfalen which is based in Düsseldorf. This estimate is based on a survey of local energy providers in Germany’s most populous state. "Price increases of around 15...

More regulations on industry will hurt the flickering economyAmerica faces a European-style debt crisis, but you wouldn’t know it from observing what’s happening on Capitol Hill. At a Senate committee’s request, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Tuesday issued an analysis of proposed renewable (RES) and clean-energy standards (CES). The federal government has grown so large that it’s actually studying how to spend money to make electricity more expensive. In fact, it’s a White House priority. In his State of the Union address, President Obama called for 80 percent of America’s electricity to come from windmills and solar panels by...

Have you had a lot of fun watching the price of gasoline shoot out of sight this year at the pump? That will be just the appetizer. Thanks to new regulations from the Obama administration, power companies will shut down a significant number of coal-fired plants by 2014, and without any other reliable sources of mass-produced electricity, consumers will see their bills go up as much as 60% (via Instapundit and Newsalert): Consumers could see their electricity bills jump an estimated 40 to 60 percent in the next few years.The reason: Pending environmental regulations will make coal-fired generating plants, which...

<p>Last year's rate hikes are still in effect, although wholesale prices are lower.</p> <p>LOS ANGELES -- Blackouts have ended and wholesale power costs have plummeted, but California's energy crisis continues to haunt consumers.</p> <p>Californians aren't paying any less for electricity even though wholesale power costs one-tenth of what it did when the state Public Utilities Commission approved a 30 percent rate hike 15 months ago.</p>