To the editor:

Look at your electric bill. There is a line included that reads “Power Cost Adjustment”. That is a mechanism that permits utilities to regularly adjust the price of electricity to reflect fluctuation in the cost of fuel, or purchased power used to supply electricity. The cost to make electricity is affected by the price of coal and fuel. This legislation was passed by the US Congress August of 2022, signed by the current President and went into effect September 1, 2022. Using my billing from a year ago and comparing it to my current billing, the increase of the Power Cost Adjustment this month from the same month a year ago was just over 93%. In my case that amounts to a few hundred extra dollars and I am sure I am not alone.

I’m not looking for any sympathy, but to point out the fact that rather than permitting the building of more sources of power like coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants, our brilliant Congress and President decided to just make us pay more for a current limited supply thru legislation. Does the word “inflation” come to mind?

So, don’t blame the local power companies, the retail and grocery stores and other businesses for high prices. They are trying to maintain a profit margin in order to stay in business. Put the blame on the people that are the cause of all the high prices and shortages. The people that were elected or selected should receive a good portion of the blame, but also the blame belongs to the people that elected them.

Rather than continuously complaining about cost of energy, we need to demand that our State and Federal Representatives and Senators work on permitting the building of more coal, gas and nuclear power plants resulting in lower energy costs and potential brown outs and black outs.

Make sense?

Roger Baumann

Wabasso