NV Energy rates going up Jan. 1
By Madison Corney, KRNV-TV
NV Energy residential customers will see an increase on their monthly gas and electric bills Jan. 1.
In June 2013, NV Energy submitted a legally required electric and gas general rate case to the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada. Last week the rate case was approved.
Starting on Jan. 1 a typical residential electric customer will see about a 3 percent increase on their monthly statement, which comes to about $2.84. A typical gas customer will see about a 5 percent increase which comes to about $2.43.
President Obama laid out his new plan to tackle global warming Tuesday. In 2008, he made comments about “bankrupting” coal plant owners and making energy prices “skyrocket.”
“So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them, because they’re going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that’s being emitted,” Obama said during a meeting with the San Francisco Chronicle’s editorial board.
“Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad,” he added. “Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to, uh, retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.”
Something the man DIDN’T lie about.
Here is a speech Pres. Obama gave earlier this year that accurately represents his administration’s efforts to face up to the realities of climate change: http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/06/25/president-obama-speaks-climate-change
Unlike the out of context quotes about the coal industry from 5 years ago, the goals presented in this speech are a comprehensive plan to finally face up to the fact that a fossil fuel based energy supply is obsolete, increasingly expensive to produce and harmful to every living thing on the planet. Weaning ourselves from these fuels is the necessary, if painful, strategy for the future.
The sooner we move forward with alternative sources the better. I remember the green movements of the 70s starting to make progress on these issues and we even had solar panels installed on the Whitehouse to signify that we were serious about change. Of course then came Reagan and his sell out to corporate self-interests and the stupidity of “the market’s invisible hand” and here we are today, 30+ years with our heads in the sand so a very few could prosper at the expense of everyone else.
Hopefully, companies like Nevada Energy will be part of the solution and finally begin to invest their resources in alternative fuels such as wind, solar and geothermal in a serious effort to solve these problems. We should encourage such endeavors with tax breaks or whatever it takes to make these energy sources profitable and available to all consumers. Nevada has as much or more potential to succeed in this field and as any other state in the union, what are we waiting for?
“Sigh…”