Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Rant of the Day - Electricity Bill Shock

I just had to get this out and since I'm alone at home and no one would hear me scream other than my two cats who would just look at me with nonchalance. It's not good to hold things in, and my pressure's already up. So, I yellingly ask....

WHY THE HELL IS MY PEPCO ELECTRICITY BILL $738?????

This is abso-freakin-rediculous, is it not? It has doubled since the last bill. I admit, I figured it would be in the $400's (like it was in Dec.) but $700's? Is someone stealing my kilowatts or what? Last year my highest bill was $360 and I was outraged at that! And that was when I had about a thousand Christmas lights blaring all night long. (I didn't put them up again this year simply because of the electricity bill!)

How can the price per unit have basically doubled since last year and the price of gas has not, so they can't use that as an excuse like the gas companies! I thought we got electricity from coal not oil or gas!

Last year the price per KWH was 0.0566800. It is now 0.0933100. That is a 61% increase. How is this fair? First of all electricity companies basically have a monopoly in the area they service (I don't have any other choice than Pepco - to my knowledge). Why are they allowed to charge whatever they want? And why isn't the local or even federal government doing something about this like they did with breaking up AT&T back in the 80s? At least we have some other options for residential phone service now with the advent of VoIP service or using a cell phone as your primary phone and that has forced Verizon and other monopolistic phone companies to lower their rates.

Is it just me or did everybody's bill double with the last month's cycle? And if I used less than double the amount of KWH's from last month, why is my bill MORE than 50% higher? Something stinks here, people. We need to write to Congress about this or something because I feel the electricity and gas companies are using the war as an excuse to rape us all. If my next bill is not considerably lower, I will be forced to place bear traps all around my outside meter and I will beat the meter-reader until he punches in a negative usage number for my meter!
Pepco is the anti-Christ.

3 comments:

Dee said...

I read in woman's day where a couple unplugged everything they didn't use daily and only plugged them in when they used them. I mean, yeah, your bill is too high but if you're not already doing this, hey, it might help.

TDJ said...

Uh oh! I smell foul. Hubby and I live in NE DC and our last bill was $380 (2 bedroom house, electric heat, gas cooking, washer and dryer). Maybe they made a mistake? Or is that wishful thinking?

Miz JJ said...

That is crazy. I am glad I still rent. I also read something like what GC said. Apparently you appliances use electricity even when they are not on and just plugged in.