Free Republic

Watchdogs have slammed California local government for spending billions in overtime pay – with police officers, firefighters, linemen and utility workers earning up to $792,000 in a single year. Short staffing, poor planning, generous union deals and expensive hiring costs all contribute to civil servants relying heavily on overtime, experts told DailyMail.com. It has given frontline workers a golden opportunity to earn several million dollars since 2019. But tax watchdogs say it is a raw deal for the taxpayer. Senior Los Angeles fire captain Jason Getchius had a salary of $169,764 in 2022, the latest figures provided by the city....

With energy bills putting a crunch on the U.S. this winter, comparing the costs of electric heat vs gas heat can be an important decision for homeowners looking to save money. When Kiplinger looked at this same question last year, we concluded that gas heat was the cheaper option. However, a new study found flaws in the way electric heating costs are accounted for, changing the cost outlook. Moreover, electricity costs vary substantially from one U.S. state to another. In this year’s winter fuels outlook, published by the Energy Information Agency (EIA), it’s forecasted that from November through March, heating-oil...

These news stories, one from a small town in Pennsylvania and the other from the Big Apple, are just more evidence that the “liberation” efforts of “Palestine” and their “freedom fighters” come specifically through terrorism and pandemonium. First, from Aliquippa, PA, reported by AP News:The tiny Aliquippa water authority in western Pennsylvania was perhaps the least-suspecting victim of an international cyberattack.…Then it — along with several other water utilities — was struck by what federal authorities say are Iranian-backed hackers targeting a piece of equipment specifically because it was Israeli-made.Here was the graphic displayed across the screen immediately after the...

Maine voters rejected a ballot initiative Tuesday that would have replaced the state’s electric utilities with the first state consumer-owned utility. The initiative, Question 3, would have created the Pine Tree Power company through a takeover of Maine’s two investor-owned utilities, Versant and CMP. The Associated Press called the race Tuesday night with about 68 percent of the vote counted, indicating only about 30 percent of voters supported the proposition.

DENVER — Xcel Energy customers are sweating the possibility of another rate hike. They're making their opposition known to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) as the agency considers a $45 million electric rate increase. “They make more than enough money. They don’t need to gouge their customers any further,” said Loren Meaux, an Xcel customer, in a public comment hearing Tuesday. Xcel originally filed for a $312 million increase to pay for investments in transmission projects and its commitment to meet Colorado greenhouse gas emissions goals. After negotiations with state regulators and consumer advocates, the company dropped the increase to...

Over the past few months, we’ve asked Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU) questions about how they spend ratepayer dollars on advertising and sponsorships. Stay tuned for a future Springs Taxpayers United article about sponsorships. Right now, we’ll focus exclusively on the CSU advertising budget. We wondered why a monopoly utility needs to advertise at all. No one in their service area has a choice on which utility to use. The local advertising company Vladmir Jones handles the advertising account for CSU. Through a Colorado Open Records Act (CORA) request, we asked for all of the 2022 advertising expenditures. Vladmir Jones invoices...

What is up with the local power companies lately? You cannot get ANYONE to pick up in less than an hour, sometimes TWO hours on hold!!!??? Specifically Iberdrola companies RG&E and NYSEG!!! We have an HVAC biz and getting through to them to get a job number done (electric/gas upgrade) is almost IMPOSSIBLE!

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) stated that the Inflation Reduction Act is “partly about bringing down utility costs, and it’s partly about bringing down healthcare costs.” But admitted it only does so in the long run and stated that “long-term is where, I think, everybody in America would like to see those prices come down.” Host Andrea Mitchell said, “[T]he Inflation Reduction Act, so named, doesn’t really reduce inflation. It brings the deficit down, less than one might have hoped because of Manchin and Sinema taking things out on the tax piece of...

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Deputies are on the search for two men who tried breaking into a home at gunpoint while posing as Sacramento Municipal Utility District employees. On Jan. 23, two men were captured on surveillance video impersonating SMUD workers at a home along El Sur Way in the Arden area. The Sacramento County Sheriff's Office said the men told a woman they were investigating a gas leak. When they got into her gated yard, one of the men held the woman at gunpoint and threatened to kill her if she did not let them inside. The woman managed to push the man...

Here are some of my thoughts on the billing of electricity with respect to homeowners with solar panel installations. The topic is complex. My suggestions are intended to be possible improvements and not perfections. There are a number of components that could go into the computation of a solar panel homeowner's bill: the capital cost of the related non-solar backup capacity, the cost of the utility lines dedicated to the customer, the cost to collect payment, the fuel cost of the electricity and credit for the electricity supplied to the grid by the customer. A CUSTOMER'S USAGE-BASED SHARE of the...

The Biden administration is taking steps to help distribute several billion dollars in aid for winter heating and utility bills, an unprecedented sum that comes largely from its $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. The package provided an additional $4.5 billion for the government’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which typically has funding of $3 billion to $4 billion annually. Aid for renters can also cover utility costs, while the money provided to state, local and tribal governments can help families that face high heating bills and are ineligible for other programs.

Dominion (Utility) has been funneling piles of cash to a Democrat dark money group that’s posing as a conservative outlet upset by Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin’s supposed squishiness on the Second Amendment. The political news outlet Axios reported in late September that the Accountability Virginia operation has ties to Democratic activists and is funding an ad campaign in which the Democrats pose as conservatives “to drive a wedge between the Republican candidate for Virginia governor and his core voters.” The ads on Facebook, Instagram, Google and Snapchat target rural areas of the state that support Youngkin, and the ads question...

European energy prices might be at record levels, but there is still room for prices to run... Of course, natural gas prices are soaring everywhere—not just in Europe. The U.S. benchmark price for natural gas has nearly doubled over the last year, ... U.S. gas exports are soaring more, hitting all-time records. ... Germany is battling the highest inflation since 2008, thanks to higher energy prices. Typically, demand for natural gas this time of year is still low. Today’s high prices, at a time when demand is typically low, are worrisome for Europe, which is now looking at a difficult...

Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib is pushing for legislation that would let people who fail to pay their water, electricity or broadband bills off the hook. "Cancel water, electricity and broadband debt," the Squad member tweeted Wednesday morning. "#StopTheShutoffs." She changed her messaging Thursday afternoon – calling for a bailout instead of outright cancellation. "No one should live without water and critical services," she tweeted Thursday. "Congress bailed out the banks in 2008 when it was their own wrongdoing. There should be NO hesitation in bailing out people who, due to no fault of their own, are experiencing the impacts of...

Gov. Gavin Newsom has appealed directly to investor Warren Buffett to support demolishing four hydroelectric dams on a river along the Oregon-California border ... which would be the largest dam removal in U.S. history. The dams are owned by PacificCorp, an Oregon-based utility that is part of Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. conglomerate. The $450 million project would reshape California’s second-largest river and empty giant reservoirs. ... Newsom supports a 2016 agreement under which PacifiCorp would transfer its federal hydroelectric licenses for the dams to a nonprofit coalition, the Klamath River Renewal Corp., that was formed to oversee the demolition. ......

JACKSON TOWNSHIP, NJ – A Trump 2020 flag was attached to a telephone pole this week on a residential street in Jackson and some residents were upset about it. Jackson has been fighting right of way and utility pole usage battles with First Energy and local Jewish Orthodox residents for years, as they sought to attach eruv wires to the poles. This time, it’s an oversized Trump flag that has residents up in arms. Township code says no objects can be placed in the streetside right of way, but the township has found that the utility company owns the poles...

A new "net neutrality" plan released by the White House on Monday morning includes an endorsement of an old idea that some activists have been pushing for years: the treatment of the Internet as a public utility.

UPDATE: Power restored for many, but some still wait Tens of thousands of homes and businesses across the state are without power Friday due to a combination of issues at a substation and switching stations for two of the state's major utility companies, officials said. The overall outages for PSE&G and JCP&L customers hit 50,000 customers by 11 a.m. The problem areas and numbers have changed rapidly through morning since the outages began around 5:30 a.m. Union County was bearing the brunt of the outages at 11 a.m. with 21,000 PSE&G customers without electricity due to what a spokeswoman called...

What is this? I don't know what these are but they are installed every couple of miles around here. It is a big deal because an entirely new utility pole has to be installed which is at least 10 feet higher than the others.