Editorial:
Lately it feels like we are spinning out of control and there is no end in sight. We could be entering another war – this time in Libya. The standoff continues in Madison, Wisconsin, as hundreds of thousands of protestors converge on the city to defend their right to collective bargaining. Gas prices are going through the roof once again, and food prices are on the rise. The State of California is in a desperate situation with the budget. Cities are acting quickly to squirrel away any redevelopment monies they can, before the state ends that funding. The cost of education keeps rising to the point where pretty soon only the rich will be able to go to college. And we haven’t seen a pay raise in years, as benefits continue to dwindle.
If all this isn’t bad enough, we opened our latest SDG&E bill and were shocked at the cost to stay warm during the last month. The bill was over $300 dollars for a modest middle class home that sits empty most of the day, despite our aggressive attempts to conserve energy. Short of shutting off the furnace at night, there isn’t much left to do.
As we sit there looking at the bill, we curse under our breath at the idiot legislators who decided that deregulating energy companies was a good idea. We trusted their mantra that competition was good and might actually drive down the cost of gas and electricity. What a joke that was.
This got us to thinking about the situation in Wisconsin and the Republican Party’s intent of limiting government and giving free reign to corporations to proceed as they see fit in the open market. Corporations are driven by two things, making money for the stock holders and the bottom line. All else does not matter! And the larger they get, the more often they practice “gotcha capitalism” and raise rates and fees, much like our deregulated utility companies.
All we have to do is to look back at the Enron situation, making outrageous amounts of money was not good enough. Enron was compelled to manipulate the market to make even more money at the expense of rate payers in California.
So a word of caution to Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, be careful what you wish for it might actually come true… and once the cat is out of the bag it is awfully hard to put it back in, which brings us back to the $300 dollar gas bill.
Staples in life should – and in some cases need – to be regulated. You cannot survive without gas and electricity. We need these commodities and at the same time have to pay the price dictated by the companies. We have no choice. The gas companies are not concerned with the hardship and effect of rising electric rates, their concern is profit.
Unfortunately, there is no leadership on the issue of rolling back the deregulation amongst our elected politicians. Gas and electric companies will stay unregulated and bills will continue to rise… Who is looking out for hard-working, ordinary citizens in this country?