The Dallas Morning News as a story about TXU (Texas Utilities, the main electric company in Texas) showing twice as much profit this year as opposed to last year. A couple of choice quotes from the story.
TXU Corp.
nearly doubled its profit for the third quarter compared with last year
thanks to higher electricity prices.The company sold
less electricity during the quarter than last year, but fetched higher
prices on the market, boosting revenue and profit.
OK, so since they jacked up the price, then they made more money. Seems to make sense doesn't it. However, read this next quote and figure out why they were still complaining.
TXU said the performance wasn’t as strong as officials had expected.
“TXU Energy delivered lower-than-planned results largely because
consumers implemented efficiency measures in response to prices and
warmer weather. We are also beginning to see increased competitive
offers and pricing options,” said TXU Chief Executive John Wilder on
Thursday in a 37-page press release.
My favorite part is “consumers implemented efficiency measures in response to prices and
warmer weather.” Allow me to translate from marketing-speak to normal English. “We would have made more money, except people started turning up air conditioners and attempting to save energy because we were gouging money out of them with our prices. But we still doubled our profits!”
I don't want to take away a company's ability to make as much money as possible. However, when what they are charging for something that everyone needs, I don't think they need to be beholden to stockholders and fund managers. I'm not a socialist on this, nor do I want government to race in to stop it. However, I think that utility companies need to be nonprofits. You make enough money to cover your expenses, make some capital improvements, and then stop there. No profits distributed to shareholders, just money back to the normal who use your services. We all that people who are most likely shareholders of the company aren't typically the ones who are affected most by higher energy bills anyway.
TXU isn't my electric company, so this doesn't affect me directly. However, in a deregulated state like Texas, it will affect me indirectly. GCEC, my local electric cooperative, recently raised their rates, even though the cost of actually acquiring electricity went down. My average electric bill has gone up precipitously in the last two and a half years since we bought our house.
| Year | Average cost | Average kWh used | Average cost/kWh |
| 2004 | $111.80 ($126.34) | 1289 kWh (1463 kWh) | 0.086734 $/kWh (0.086357 $/kWh) |
| 2005 | $179.32 | 1771 kWh | 0.101254 $/kWh |
| 2006 | $227.63 | 1737 kWh | 0.131048 $/kWh |
2004 is skewed for two different reasons. First, we moved in at the end of August, so we were past the worst of the summer. Second, the first month of my records is only for half of one month, making it even more skewed down. I'm using less power this year on average than I was last year, and that number will most likely go down as my average usage during November and December is lower. So, I'm paying 26.9% per month on average, though I'm using 1.92% less energy. My average cost per kilowatt hour has gone up 29.4%.
What am I saying by all this. It's not news to anyone, but we're all getting gouged by energy companies, and we just accept it. The newspaper just reports it as if we should not even notice it. What really sucks though is there is nothing we can do about it. I wish I had a solution to change it, but I don't. Any ideas?
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Non-profit thing sounds good to me…