When you control the power, you have all the power

In the mid-1990s, voters in the upstate New York city of Glens Falls rejected a proposal to create a municipal power corporation, of the kind 47 localities in NYS now have. The then-Niagara Mohawk spent a lot of money propagandizing against the referendum so as to preserve its monopoly. 

When multinational National Grid proposed to buy Niagara Mohawk, it was sold as a good deal for customers, who would allegedly benefit from the larger corporation's resources and economies of scale. Customers have never seen one iota of benefit from this merger, but plenty of pain.

The TOTAL rate for the public electric utility in Massena in northern New York is less than the DELIVERY ONLY rate that National Grid charged this month (even before you pay for the actual electric supply). Assuming the municipal utility's website is correct, residential electric rates in Massena have remained the same since 1997 (around the time GF resident's rejected a similar utility).

Right now, individual towns, villages or cities can form their own municipal power corporation, if they feel like spending millions in legal fees to fight National Grid and its ilk. In 2010, a proposal in the New York state legislature would have allowed smaller municipalities to band together to form regional power corporations. The bill appears to have withered on the vine. I wonder why.

Thieves and the thieving thieves who gouge us

I feel like even if I used no electricity at all, I’d still owe National Greed at least $25.

My current bill...

Supply (actual usage): $17

“Delivery” (that includes ‘basic service,’ which is ‘not including usage’, AND ‘delivery’... as two distinct categories): $44

Electric rates in NY skyrocketing... with an exception

The New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, recently published information about the average monthly rates for each of the electric providers in the state from 2001-2010 (available here). I decided to do a little analysis. I compared the average monthly residential rates of the providers in 2005 and 2010. Every single provider saw at least a double digit percent increase in that five year period... except for one.

Central Hudson: 31.8% increase from 2005 to 2010
ConEd NYC: 14.9% increase
ConEd Westchester: 18.6% increase
National Grid: 21.5% increase
Orange and Rockland Electric: 26.7% increase
Rochester Gas and Electric: 17.2% increase
NYSEG: 15.9% DECREASE

This begs an important question. The industry tells us that rates are so high in New York because of the state's supposedly unfriendly regulatory environment. So how is it that NYSEG was able to offer its customers a significant decrease in rates in the last several years while every other electric provider was imposing significant increases?

I certainly understand your frustration which is why I'm going to continue ignoring you

Dear customer dis-service hacks,

If I say "My problem is x. I've tried to fix it by doing y and z" and your so-called answer is "Try doing y or z," it means you're only adding to my fury not assuaging it... no matter how many times your script tells you to say that you "certainly understand my frustration."

Because if you really understand my frustration, then why don't you... I don't know... READ WHAT I (expletives deleted) WRITE!!!

And while you're at it, don't spend 10 minutes keeping me on hold assuring me "how important (my) call is to (you)."

If it's that important, answer the damn call. Rubbing it in my face that I'm still on hold because of your useless customer service only makes it worse.

Sincerely,
Brian

Why I won't take The Pledge

The electricity monopoly National Grid has launched a new PR campaign designed to get people to pledge to reduce energy consumption by 3 percent.

They tout the initiative on their main website with the pithy phrase, "The less energy you use, the less you pay for."

The problem is that due to National Greed's billing practices*, the phrase is patently untrue. The monopoly has consistently offset any reduction in revenues received from actual power usage by jacking up the nebulous "delivery charge" portion of their bill... which can be as much as three and a half times the cost of actual power usage.

Reduce energy usage because it's the right thing to do for the planet. But don't act under any delusion that you will see any difference on your National Greed bill.

(*-Note: I've documented these practices several times including most expansively here but also here and here)

Upstate NY shafted on rail and electric

So apparently New York, the third most populous state in the country, got a mere $151 million out of the Obama administration's $8 billion allocated for rail improvements. Planet Albany wonders if this is due to New York not being a swing state (Obama beat McCain in the state 62-36 pct) or due to the ineffectiveness of the state's Congressional delegation (29 of its 31 members belong to Obama's Democratic Party).

For its part, the Herkimer County Progressive places the blame on the state itself for not investing enough in rail. Presumably, this was seen by the feds as lack of interest in much needed upgrades to the mass transit system in upstate NY.

Lack of reliable public transit is one thing holding back economic development in upstate. Sky-high electricity costs are another. And it's only going to get worse.

The giant power monopoly National Grid wants to raise its electric rates by 20 percent. National Greed already has among the highest power rates in the nation, according to the Syracuse Post-Standard.

As I've written about several times before, the power monopoly regularly gouges customers with its nebulous "delivery charge." I personally have had several months where the "delivery" for my electricity cost at least twice as much as the actual power itself. Can you imagine if a pizza place charged you an extra $20 to deliver a $10 pizza? But apparently National Greed can get away with it, all with the collaboration of the state's dubiously named Public Service Commission.

At least you can say one thing about National Greed, the monopoly open about their intent. The Post-Standard article said Tom King, president of National Grid in the United States, said the company needs to make higher profits in order to attract money from shareholders.

"A fool and his money are soon parted"

THE CABLE TV RACKET
A few months ago, I canceled my cable television service. I felt like I was paying an arm and a leg to stupidify myself. And the few programs and sports I watched are now mostly available free or much more cheaply online. It looks like I picked a good time to bail on the overpriced tripe.

The local cable monopoly Time Warner (TW) announced that it would jack up its 2010 rates for digital cable by nearly 10 percent. The cheapest digital cable package will now cost $71 a month before taxes and other assorted fees and gouging.

TW and Fox very recently reached an agreement that would have the cable giant pay more for carrying the network and its subsidiaries. Reports suggest that the company that carries HGTV and Food Network is looking for a similar deal from TW. So rates will no doubt increase a comparable amount, if not more, in 2011.

Especially since the cable giant spent some its customers' money campaigning against Rupert Murdoch's corporation.

**

THE POWER COMPANY RACKET
A follow-up to my earlier post on National Greed thieves. My latest bill from the 'regulated' monopoly utility charged me $41.14 for the actual electricity I used but gouged me $84.76 in 'delivery charges' on that electricity.

In other words, less than 1/3 of my electric bill cost was for, you know, ACTUAL ELECTRICITY.

Can you imagine if an Italian place imposed a $30 delivery charge for a $15 pizza? It would out of business faster than you can say 'Mamma mia!'.

That's because, unlike the power racket, the pizza business has actual competition.

But despite rolling in our cash because of this gouging ($1.43 billion in profits last year), National Grid still wants to outsource its central New York jobs somewhere else.

I'm sure my dad would take this opportunity to say "I told you so." In 1996, he (and I) supported a plan that would've created a municipal power corporation in Glens Falls, like many northern New York towns already have. Niagara Mohawk (later bought by National Greed) spent a substantial sum of money to defeat it in a referendum. A good investment on their part as their gouging has more than made up for it.

***

SOME 'FREE' ADVICE FOR NEWSPAPERS
You hear constant doom and gloom about the state of the newspaper business. And you hear establishment types talking about the 'need' to charge Internet users for content. You hear them treating these customers (ad viewers) like freeloaders. You hear how the newspapers 'can't afford' anymore to give content away for free.

And then you check your mailbox.

Many daily newspapers are now putting out FREE weekly newspapers. Granted, these weeklies usually contain minimal news content and are dominated by features. But it still costs money to pay the writers, to pay the printing people, to pay for the newsprint and ink, to pay for the electricity to run the presses, etc. This is no doubt more expensive than running a web server and having a tech person to maintain it. So how can the papers afford to give away one kind of product but not another?

Even more telling, the local daily Post-Star actually spends money to mail their weekly advertising vehicle (I'm not sure what the name of the latest incarnation is) to area households. So they're not only spending lots of money to create the product they're giving away, they're spending money to mail it to tens of thousands of people.

But they 'can't afford' to post a police blotter snippet online?

***

MAYBE THEY MISSED THE MEMO ABOUT THE FISCAL CRISIS
Apparently, Glens Falls Civic Center management wants to spend 'anywhere from $250,000 to $1 million' on video boards for the arena.

The good news is that Mayor Jack Diamond said he wouldn’t support paying for the addition with city property tax revenues, according to The Post-Star.

The bad news is that he said that state and/or federal funding was a good possibility.

With the feds running record deficits and the state so cash poor it's withholding payments from schools and other groups in need, this is a particularly bad time to be talking about spending money on a luxury like this.

But at least they're not talking about building another parking garage, as one PostStar.com commenter demanded.

***

BETTER TO LET PEOPLE THINK YOU'RE A FOOL...
So the latest flap in the punditocracy is that Fox News [sic] anchor Brit Hume told Tiger Woods that if he wanted 'forgiveness and redemption,' he should convert to Christianity.

Woods is Buddhist.

NCPR's Brian Mann explains why this is, to say the very least, a bit bizarre.

That being said, I am not sure if I'm more intensely uninterested in Woods' private life or in Hume's sectarian beliefs.

Milk processors squeeze farmers, gouge customers

It looks like the thieves at National Grid are not the only ones gouging customers. The Associated Press reports that New York farmers are getting record low payments for milk [even though] consumers are seeing just a fraction of the savings.

Energy efficient bulbs

How much do the energy-efficient compact florescent light bulbs make a difference? I recently switched all my light sockets (except for my bedroom, in which I can't use them) to those bulbs. Fall is my lowest energy-usage period but I used 35% less electricity this September than last September... which was my previous lowest energy-usage month in the past two years.

I'm not sure it matters given how National Grid thieves will probably gouge me out of any savings anyways, but it's interesting.

A further example of National Grid gouging

A further illustration of what I wrote about here about gouging by the National Grid thieves.

My most recent electric bill:

Supply charges (cost of the power I used): $9.45

Delivery charges (cost of delivering the power I used): $33.08


If the pizza place tacked on a $30 delivery charge to bring you your $10 pizza, you wouldn't order there any more. But then again, pizza places are subject to competition.

Non-shock of the year: National Grid gouges customers

The Post-Star has an article on how the crooks at National Grid are gouging customers. The global conglomerate that is the region's monopoly electricity deliverer is jacking up delivery charges to compensate for falling electric and natural gas prices.

National Grid regularly sends out informational literature to customers encourage them to cut costs by taking energy saving measures. That meant they were using less energy and providing less revenue to the utility. National Grid decided to jack up the delivery part of their bill to compensate. After spending time and money to take those energy saving measures, they see no benefit in their electric bill.

In other words, the utility is punishing customers for following their advice!

A Moreau resident's bill showed her family of four had used $177.68 worth of natural gas and electricity in the preceding month, but the "delivery charges" for those commodities totaled $303.97.

Delivery of her power cost 71 percent more than the actual power. For that markup, the bill should come in a gold plated envelope.

My own most recent bill was even worse: delivery charges were MORE THAN DOUBLE the cost of the actual electricity delivered! Imagine buying a $300 stove from Sears and having them charge $700 to deliver it.

Maybe National Grid has to gouge customers to pay for their worthless, incompetent customer service or for the power going out every time there's a decent rain or snow storm (which never happens in upstate New York).

I will post my own National Grid horror story here at a later time, after I compose the letter to the state Public Service Commission and Attorney General's office.

In the mid-1990s, some officials in the city of Glens Falls pushed for the creation of a municipal power company, like the one run by the similarly-sized town of Massena, NY. Not surprisingly, Niagara Mohawk (which was bought by National Grid) saw a threat to their lucrative business and waged a massively expensive and somewhat deceptive PR campaign against the proposal.

Despite the cost, the PR campaign was a good investment... for them at least. The public utility was voted down in a referendum and they were free to continue gouging customers... and municipalities too.