Electricity story flips a switch

Avi Rutschman, you are my hero. Please stick with the high electric rate story and investigate it further.

Facts: My July 2006 electric bill increased 45.6 percent vs. July 2005 per kilowatt hour, yet my consumption decreased 6.3 percent. My 100 percent plus baseline rate increased 80 percent year on year.

Edison (per your article) mentions average increase rates of 15 percent. Rudy Gonzalez, Edison spokesperson, is quoted as saying, "The system (tiers) is used to give an incentive to our customers to conserve energy." I cut my consumption 6 percent, yet I am paying three times the average increase rate increase per Edison.

The tier pricing structure appears to have very little to do with conservation, but rather for maximizing revenue.

What are our elected officials doing about this?

I am a hard working, patrotic American, but I honestly feel that in this instance the system has failed us. What is going here is a mismanged company (Southern Cal Edision), not properly regulated by the Public Utilities Commission, adopting a pricing system this is too complicated and unfair, resulting in discriminatory pricing and no incentives to conserve energy. Perhaps there were good intentions for the tier pricing sytem, but it is time to dismantle it.

Given that the Department of Water and Power has done a much, much better job than Southern Cal Edison, the L.A. Times will not follow this. The people of Calabasas, Agoura Hills, etc., need The Acorn. It is our best voice. Jeff Brown Calabasas