Avista 'surcharge' is just a rate hike

Avista says they're losing money by our trying to conserve and using new energy efficient appliances, which they say justifies their need to add surcharges to make up their losses. This leaves the ratepayers wide open for added monthly charges at the whim of Avista's billing cycles.

I wrote a letter to the editor in the past concerning when our electric power suddenly is interrupted for sometimes only seconds and then comes back on, which causes your meter to increase more rapidly and causes a higher billing amount - although Avista won't admit this is happening. The Press reports the large bonuses Avista pays out to the five executive department positions and this apparently isn't being affected.

The Idaho Department of Public Utilities has been giving Avista "carte blanche" for every type of increase they ask for and will probably allow the "surcharges" to go into effect without question. There has to be a limit set that Avista can charge for those ratepayers who are surviving on fixed incomes. The average household ratepayer has no idea how much electric useage is being consumed daily or if they have conserved from day to day. Public utilities have no competition and are a monopoly. There has to be a mechanism that doesn't let them get out of control. When Prop 8 in California was passed, this was to curtail the cities and counties from no limits on property taxes which was causing those living on fixed incomes to lose their homes.

After reading the Avista article in The Press, many residents should have been upset with their proposal for starting the "surcharges," especially when Jason Lang, Avista's manager of investment relations, said Avista might under-recover or over-recover costs and if they over-recover, they will give it back. Pat Ehrbar, Avista's manager of rates and tariffs, stated "If we recover less, we can seek that back from customers with the surcharge." They're probably already counting their increases in revenue.

Of all the years living in California, I never remember a utility refunding on any of their monthly billings and most consumers wouldn't know if they have been overcharged or not. The Public Utilities Commission was originally started to look out for the consumers' benefit, but now have fallen prey to public utility company pressures and their stockholders. Yes, we need the utilities, but we also need the control.

"Surcharge" is just another word for "increase" and Avista won't have to apply for this rate increase every year. The average rate user tries to lower his monthly usage with purchasing new energy efficient appliances and adjusting the thermostat during weather changes to save money while Avista is applying for ways to cause your bill to increase. Avista is such a conglomerate and controls many facets of electric and gas supplying to many consumers, dams and hydroelectric productions for not only Idaho, but Washington too. With the population increases every year in both states, supply and demand increase along with revenues to Avista.

We are hoping that decent and pressure from consumers to write the Public Utilities Commission and ask that the consumer surcharges not be allowed as Avista is asking and to stay with their regular monthly billings.

Bill Singleton is a Coeur d'Alene resident.