LP&L Approves Rate Increase To Your Electric Bill
Seriously, is this happening? LP&L has approved a 5% "pass through" rate increase.
"Rising fuel costs" were one of the reasons cited for the monthly increase. In fairness, a quick check showed this was true, but something still seems a little off here.
LP&L is apparently just passing their costs off onto you, where some of us believe some of those costs should be absorbed. According to KCBD the average customer will see an increase of $5.12 a month (which is the nice way of saying over $60 a year). Of course, we all know we aren't the "average" customer and we've seen wild fluctuations on many bills. Also keep in mind this increase is just to the fuel charge and not your overall bill.
LP&L actually lowered gas prices last February, so all of this could be viewed as a simple "correction" but it's hard to get the complete story here. In fact, anything they do is still tainted with their past problems and miscues. It's also kind of hard to stomach an increase after the power being out on Xmas eve as it was for many central Lubbockites.
I'm not finding all the information I need, but I can tell you that one past LP&L director made over $250,000 a year, with a benefits package worth about $60,000. All of this and they can't live without that extra five bucks a month from you. That's one thing that many of us will never get past when we hear about our electric bill going up.