Why should we pay for conserving energy?
By State Sen. Pat Dougherty
Guest Columnist
Currently, Missouri public utility providers unfairly charge customers who are already near the breaking point, shouldering an ever-growing load of living expenses not seen by previous generations.
Last year, the General Assembly passed a bill that allows Missouri’s energy watchdog, the Public Service Commission, to adopt rules giving utilities more leeway in passing on costs to customers. But what part of that bill really does is to slap a surcharge on families for trying to save energy.
In other words, if consumers turn down their heat and the utility companies don’t make the profits they expected, they can now charge more to make up for their loss.
As a result, I have sponsored legislation that invalidates the big-corporation-friendly/consumer-unfriendly provision in the bill that penalizes frugality and conservation. My bill will restore protection for Missouri families working to make a better life, because in these times of skyrocketing natural gas prices, consumers and families need protection, not punishment.
The Public Service Commission is in place to protect and serve the energy consumer, not to enable windfall profits for big energy providers. I will not stand idly by and watch as utility companies punish their customers for conserving our precious resources and charge their customers for trying to save money and energy. Returning the Public Service Commission to the public begins today. Restoring protection for Missouri families starts today.
Natural gas rates are expected to jump more than 40 percent this year – more than 75 percent in some parts of the nation. Naturally, faced with these dire predictions, consumers are doing there best to absorb the extra shock through energy conservation efforts. And they’re doing what’s right, too, as conservation saves precious natural resources, as well as reducing the monthly heating bill.
Or at least conservation is supposed to lower bills. But under the provision passed last year, those reducing gas usage by lowering thermostats or adding insulation could have their efforts punished with spurious surcharges and boosted rates. Where is the logic in this? Where is the commonsense, the decency?
Families are facing rising costs across the board and don’t need the added challenge of trying to pay utility bills that seem to double each month.
Insurance rates are soaring, gasoline is out of sight and the price of other necessary staples for today’s living are becoming more insurmountable each day. And on top of all these challenges, lawmakers pave the way for utility companies to heap outrageous natural gas bills on the backs of their customers? This is an outrage and I’m doing something about it.
Good public policy demands a repeal of this reprehensible bill of goods and my SB 829 will do just that.