Have you ever taken the time to stop and look at your utility bill in depth? You know … that annoying five-or-six page bill that shows up every month – whether you like it or not – giving you a huge financial reminder and headache about how much power your house is using every month?
Most homeowners assume the bill is just for electricity, but when you break it down, we are getting taxed to death. First off, there is Generation and Delivery charges. Okay, I get that. You have to GENERATE the power, and then the utility needs to DELIVER it to my electrical panel. NOW … look at the fine print. It states that my DELIVERY charge includes a huge assortment of taxes and fees such as … Transmission Charges, Distribution Charges (isn’t that the same as delivery?), Nuclear Decommissioning Charges, Conservation Incentive Adjustments (always upward), Public Purpose Programs, New System Generation charge (I thought I was billed for generation already?), Competition Transition Charge (what competition?), Franchise Fees (do I own a McDonalds or something?), and State Tax. But wait there is more! Other utilities in California also invoice us for “System Infrastructure Fixed Charge, Solar Surcharge, County Tax, State Surcharge, Energy Commission Tax, Utility Users Tax, Ongoing CTC (what is CTC?), DWR Bond Charge, and Energy Cost Recovery Amount. Once again … TAXES & FEES!
The worse thing about this … I’m not making anything up here. This is taken right off the stack of Southern California Edison, SMUD, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Pacific Gas & Electric Bills sitting on my desk right now. The worse thing about it is they have a monopoly over us. They can charge what they want, how much they want, and we don’t have any choice. Did you have a choice when you signed up for your utility? Your were able to pick from two or three utilities and choose from the competitive offering …. right? WRONG!
Shouldn’t this be illegal? Can you imagine running your business this way? Don’t we have to vote on taxes? And who says we are deserving of the fees? Once again, this is why you should consider TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR UTILITY BILLS. How? If you install solar on your home, you can generate your own power and get out from underneath their unfair price structure. Even if you put on a system that just covers just 80% of your bill, the taxes and fees are proportionate to the amount of the power you are using — meaning lower bill = lower taxes and fees.
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