sean’s place

I don’t understand people who comment on newspapers.

So, the The Coloradoan is running an article about proposed rate increases for our city utility to pay for higher energy costs and “smart” metering. I read this article this morning and thought “hey, that’s a good idea.”

Then, I read some of the comments attached to the article. I’ve chosen to share some of the more “intellectually deficient” (these are 5 of the 8 comments on the article when I read it, I kid you not) ones:

They’re going to raise utility rates so high, a person will need to monitor them on a daily basis. Thanks to Salazar and Ritter!

I’d like to be there when they tell these meter readers they’re spending 21 million dollars to eliminate their jobs. Way to go Fort Collins.

Alas, government marches on with its never ending increase in taxes, fees or however you want to label it, totally unconcerned that peopole are struggling as it is. Why did the people of Fort Collins re-elect every incumbent last fall? I did not vote for one incumbent, and certainly won’t next time either. If memory serves me, every incombent got put back into office.

Big Brother is watching, sucking away your liberty and making you pay for the process of doing so. Americans, you are idiots for allowing this to happen.

I wish my small business was “government…” Instead of taking it like the rest of us are in this economy all you have to do is raise “fees” (taxes). It’s SO easy!

It’s almost as if each and every one of these people failed to read the article. Sure, a 9.5% increase in utility rates sounds like a lot, but lets look at some facts:

• The city of Fort Collins charges $0.067 cents per kilowatt hour. Xcel Energy (which powers other parts of Colorado) charges $0.109¹ per kilowatt hour; that’s getting close to twice the cost.
• Power outages are very rare in Fort Collins. The city actually does a good job.
• Advanced Metering accounts for 2.08% of the proposed rate increase, the rest comes from power costs and other needs (at least most of which we have to pay for anyway!)

So, in essence, the City Utility wants to raise our rates by an amount that will cover their (really, our) electric bill and simultaneously upgrade our electric system. As part of the bargain, we get a smarter system that will allow us to monitor our power usage in real time. That means we can make smarter choices about how we use electricity. As we gain more knowledge about how we use electricity, the utility gets better intelligence about how power is distributed around the city; knowledge they can use better and more efficiently manage our system. All of this, and we’ll still pay less than Xcel customers.

Yes. It will cost more. No, it’s not a special fee or a tax. It’s the cost of us maintaining our own electric grid instead of a private entity. And we get a pretty smoking deal from it, too.

Oh, did I mention that the 2.08% bump is temporary? Just to pay for the upgrade²? Did I also mention that the 10-15 meter readers would be retrained and have opportunities at other jobs in the utilities department?

Yes. I realize the irony of me commenting about a news article to complain about the commenters on a news article. I think it’s funny too.

1 – quoted from Astralux Power Systems – probably not a great source.
2 – I’m under no illusion that the 2.08% will just be diverted at the end of the 3 year period to pay for other programs or utility-borne cost increases.