TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Hernando Today

Federal Budget Would Increase Utility Bills

ADVERTISEMENT

By TONY HOLT

Hernando Today

Published: March 6, 2009

SPRING HILL - Some customers have made their voices heard following recent increases in utility costs.

They wonder why charges go up at a time when more and more people can't pay their bills and mortgages.

The worst is yet to come, especially if President Barack Obama's budget passes and the upcoming energy taxes are implemented, said spokesmen from two local electric cooperatives.

"We haven't raised our rates yet, but it's not outside the realm of possibility," said Bill Bowman, of Sumter Electric Cooperative, which serves 161 customers in Hernando County. "There could be a carbon-reduction program that would impact all of us."
Fuel costs for Withlacoochee Electric Cooperative customers recently went down from $57.29 per 1,000 kilowatt hours to $54.19 as gas prices decreased by more than 50 percent since last summer, but there were still increases in energy and customer charges.

Those are the charges that irked Jim Gries, who met with members of Withlacoochee and Seminole Electric last month to talk about the increase in energy costs.

One of the reasons they gave him was CSX was hiking its prices for its services, so they were forced to recoup somehow, Gries said.

"They know we know what they're doing," said Gries, who called it a productive meeting. "They know we're not going to sit back and chill out."

Natural gas is trading below $4, gas prices have plummeted since August and coal remains inexpensive. Taking all of that into consideration, a hike in energy costs is indefensible to Gries.

"For quite some time, I have been critical of the apparent disconnect between the energy complex pricing and Withlachoochee's consumer pricing," he said.

Withlacoochee spokesman David Lambert dismissed Gries' complaints. He said he, along with an assistant general manager, discussed the reasons for the increases, which are relatively slight.

He thinks Gries and others should be more leery of the pending carbon cap-and-trade system, which is part of the president's budget.

If the budget passes, the federal government would aim to raise $800 billion in revenues from 2012 through 2019 by selling carbon-pollution permits.

Defenders of the plan say the new funds would be used on clean energy technologies and would make a new tax credit for working families permanent.

"They say some of the money would be invested in lower income families," said Lambert. "Why even tax them anyway? Why not just let them keep it?"

If it passes, the customer who uses 2,000 kilowatts per month would be billed an average increase of $40 per month, he said.

Bowman said any emphasis on renewable resources in Florida would be wasted because it lacks many of those resources.

"We have none here really," he said. "We have little solar, no wind and maybe a little biomass. Florida is a poor renewable-resource state."

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT