Rising rates deliver electric shockMar 26 - McClatchy-Tribune Content Agency, LLC - Jordan Graham Boston Herald
A legislative committee is looking into increases in electricity prices in Massachusetts, with its chairman calling the hikes "unprece-dented" and "outrageous" as news broke that Boston residents paid far more than the national average for electricity. "The House Post Audit and Oversight committee is at the beginning stages of an investigation into the reasons why Massachusetts electric customers saw unprecedented increases in their electric bills over the past year," said Chairman David Linsky (D-Natick). "We want to determine why this happened, if the increases were warranted and if there is anything under the current Massachusetts regulatory structure that regulators can do about these outrageous rate increases." Yesterday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said electricity prices in Boston were 63 percent higher than the national average in February -- well up from last year, when local prices were 29 percent higher. Utilities have blamed insufficient pipeline capacity to supply the region, coupled with high winter demand. "The high electric rates don't only affect the bill every month to the electric company, but that ultimately gets passed on to the consumer as well, it's a huge problem," Linsky said. A Massachusetts economist group, MassBenchmarks, said in its quarterly commentary yesterday: "Should energy costs remain high, the state economy will pay a high price both in terms of reduced levels of consumer spending and business activity." Dan Dolant of the New England Power Generators Association, said, "I don't know what new legislation can be put in place that change the fundamentals of supply and demand in the marketplace." http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=35622079 |