Use Less, and Pay More
Have you noticed that Power and Water Companies ask you to use less
water and electricity but then they raise your utility bills. The
consumer cannot win.
Here is how that works. I will use the Department of Water and Power in Los Angeles as my example. They City has a large
advertising budget to tell you to use less water. A couple of years ago the City of LA began a campaign to get residents to
use less water. The LA DWP asked citizens to cut back on water use by 10-percent. The Mayor said if we did not cut back we
would run out of water. It was a DROUGHT.
So the good citizens of LA started cutting back on their water use. They did a great job, they not only cut the water use
by 10-percent, but they cut it by 15-percent.
You would think the officials in the water department would be happy. No Way! When the customers cut back by 15-percent it
lowered the amount they would pay to the water utility. But, the utility had already made contracts with the regional water
suppliers to pay a certain amount of money for the water. When the people did what the officials asked them to do, SAVE Water,
the revenue to the water department went down, and the water department could not afford the pre-signed contracts they had for
regional water. All of a sudden there were no more City TV spots that said we were in a Drought. The people were asked to
use more water.
The same money game can happen with the usage of electricity. The TV commercials say be GREEN, cutback on your usage of
electricity. But, if you really cutback a lot the electric company will not have enough money to operate and pay their
pre-agreed-to contracts.
Another reason that LA consumers are being hit up for higher water and electric rates is that the City officials take
more than $600-million dollars a year out of the DWP budget to run the city. So the rate increases are really just another
city tax.
| |
