Grumpy Editor

Nevada utility's rate requests gang up on customers

With NV Energy’s new corporate ownership, coincidentally or otherwise, things move fast in nicking pockets of customers, observed Grumpy Editor.  What’s more, media did not raise eyebrows over the latest developments.   

Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co. acquired the then New York Stock Exchange-listed Nevada utility, with 1.3 million customers, less than five months ago.

MidAmerican changed its name to Berkshire Hathaway Energy just last Wednesday.  The renamed holding company, owned by Berkshire Hathaway, a publicly traded company, is led by investor Warren Buffett. 

April 30:  NV Energy filed a proposal with the Nevada Public Utilities Commission to close three of its coal-fired Nevada power plants this year and completely end use of that cheap-energy from coal power facilities within five years. The utility said it plans to make up for the lack of coal power by acquiring two existing gas-generated plants in southern Nevada and two solar farms. 

May 2:  NV Energy south filed a general rate request with the Nevada Public Utilities Commission.  The effect of the increase would be about 1.85 percent.  The utility figured that is $2.82 a month for an average residential customer in southern Nevada, based on a typical residential bill of $152.97 with an average use of 1,136 kilowatts a month --- in a desert region where residences usually use air conditioning from May to October.

Tacked on to the proposal was more than a 50 percent boost in NV Energy’s basic service charge to $15.25 a month from $10. Unlike retail stores, for example, that include data processing, customer assistance, billing and accounting as the cost of doing business, NV Energy collects a flat monthly charge for those routine services to customers.

A major news outlet said the latest PUC rate hike filing “reflects one of the smallest increases to customers in more than a decade” --- the writer apparently overlooking a 2.75 percent jump effective January, 2012.  More recently, the PUC authorized a boost in NV Energy rates effective only 34 days ago.

NV Energy is not alone in raising rates.  Other states also will see soaring prices for electricity, the result of coal-fired plants closing, reductions in nuclear power, natural gas pipeline constraints and shifting to more expensive renewable energy.  

 

 

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MUCH OF MAJOR MEDIA STILL MUM ON BENGHAZI.  Fresh information last week from more than 100 pages of documents on the Benghazi terror attack suggested a senior White House aide played a central role in preparing former U.N. ambassador Susan Rice for Sunday show appearances where she wrongly blamed protests over an Internet video.  Media Research Center president Brent Bozell declared on Fox News that "this is a media that are deliberately... suppressing the news from their audiences.” The email evidence, he added, proves a "wide variety of people in this administration were participatory" in the administration's lie that a YouTube video was the precipitating factor in the Benghazi consulate strike.

 

U.S. PERSONNEL IN UNIFORM ON TRACK TO DWINDLE.  The House Subcommittee on Military Personnel backed the Pentagon's request for troop cuts.  That puts the numbers for next year at:  490,000 soldiers, a reduction of 30,000; 184,100 Marines, a cut of 6,100; 310,900 airmen, 16,700 less, but no change in the Navy’s level of 323,600.

 

TIME TO TALK, OR RATHER, REMEMBER TURKEYS.  People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wants to erect a memorial at the Deer Creek Reservoir in Utah near U.S. 189, that reads:  “Drive Safely, Buckle Up: In Memory of the Hundreds of Terrified Turkeys Who Died Here in a Truck Crash.”

 

STANDALONE BUSINESS SECTION RETURNS.  The Houston Chronicle last week brought back its standalone business section to boost business news coverage and plans a new business column in a few weeks.

 

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$7 billion power bill for Africa taps U.S. taxpayers; Newspaper editorial head count continues downward

American taxpayers, often facing power outages and steady rate increases from their local electric utility, are raising eyebrows today following President Barack Obama --- while on a three-nation tour of Africa --- pledging $7 billion to bring electricity to more parts of Africa, notes Grumpy Editor. 

The Power Africa project is directed mainly at Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique. 

Speaking yesterday in Cape Town, South Africa, Obama says the project would bring electricity to as many as 20 million homes and businesses in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Today’s assignment:  Survey U.S. media reports, see if there is mention that U.S. taxpayers would be supporting the $7 billion project in Africa while at home they are facing higher power bills and, in some cases, other costs. 

In Nevada, for example, a recently-passed state bill calls for NV Energy to shutter coal-fired power plants and replace them with renewable energy and natural gas facilities --- with ratepayers reimbursing the New York Stock Exchange-listed utility for both closing old power plants and for construction of new ones.

 

Newspaper editorial staffers slide continues 

There were about 2,600 fewer full-time professional editorial jobs at newspapers last year, a 6.4 percent decline from 2011, leaving that category with about 38,000 full-time employees, reports the American Society of News Editors in its annual newsroom census.

The total could be even lower.  ASNE points out some large newspapers did not fill out the survey this year, resulting in missing data.

Those include USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Arizona Republic, the Miami Herald, the (New Orleans) Times-Picayune and several others.

In all, 978 of 1,382 dailies responded to the survey.

Additionally, notes ASNE, the definition of editorial staff has become muddled as some newspaper operations maintain regional editing centers.

 

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Missouri mystery: Neighborhood garage door openers fail

Radio-controlled garage door openers at five homes on the same St. Louis area street are not working, causing frustrated residents --- after checking a number of possible frequency conflicts --- to call on the Federal Communications Commission to investigate the phenomenon, notes Grumpy Editor. 

But seeking an FCC investigation may take some time.  The government agency these days is more concerned with broadband spectrums that keep smart phones operating. 

Such an unusual matter in earlier days would see the FCC on scene on the day a complaint comes in. 

The problem, surfacing in late December, obviously stems from interference from a stronger source on or close to the same frequency that the garage doors operate. 

With the case of the “clash of radio frequencies,” the affected automatic door openers utilize low power at 315 megahertz.  Now that is close to some Defense Department transmissions that use the 380 to 399.9 MHz spectrum, usually with high power. 

Adding to the mix are a number of wireless gadgets.

Growing in use are so-called “smart meters” being installed by utilities around the country.  But the data they transmit wirelessly flow through the higher 450 to 470 MHz and 902 to 928 MHz frequencies. 

Thus, solving the mysterious “radio frequency collision” affecting homes in the St. Louis area provides an excellent opportunity for a publication or a broadcasting company to dispatch electronic experts to the scene to perform a public service and reap national publicity.

And to cue in the FCC.

 

Customers conserve power, so NV Energy gets rate hike

In covering utilities and their constant parade of rate increase proposals before state public utility commissions, business writers should do a bit of fact checking, even if it means looking at their own bills, rather than following information put out by the companies, suggests Grumpy Editor. 

For example, already-squeezed customers of Nevada power utility NV Energy ---  in a state already among those with the highest electricity rates in the West --- are grumbling about state Public Utilities Commission approval Monday of a 3.4 percent rate increase that goes into effect on July 1. 

The boost seems modest enough, especially when New York Stock Exchange-listed NV Energy puts “the average residential bill” extra cost at a mere $5.29 a month. 

But when customers, most living in air-conditioned homes, view their electric bill for July, they’ll see a total close to $300 --- or more, figuring a single-story 2,400-square-foot home.  That will be $10 to $15 above the like month a year prior. 

NV Energy bills include an assortment of fees and charges, such as basic service charge, local government fee, universal energy charge, temporary green power financing and renewable energy program. 

The state PUC grants the latest rate increase to allow NV Energy to recover costs related to its energy-efficiency program. 

In other words, that program is going so well, with customers conserving power, that NV Energy sways the PUC to approve a rate hike to compensate for revenue lost from more energy-efficient steps and equipment. 

Just prior to the rate increase, senior group AARP representative Barry Gold tells the Nevada PUC: 

“During a time of economic crisis (NV Energy) is asking us to pay more.  They ask us to save energy, but the better we conserve, the more it’s going to cost us.  (Nevada) already is first in foreclosures and first in unemployment.  We don’t want to be first in electricity shutoffs, too.” 

PUC chairwoman Alaina Burtenshaw, meanwhile, points to state legislators, declaring, “They’re the ones who make the laws we have to follow.” 

Look for more irate ratepayers. 

NV Energy is slated to apply for a general rate increase next Wednesday.