Havlik’s timeless analysis: Justification for fixed charges in rates, their just level relative to variable charges.
I found this book at the Library of Congress and had to have it. Fortunately AbeBooks, that has just about anything old and obscure, did have for sale this 1938 classic on rate design. And that's how I came to own a copy of "Service Charges in Gas and Electric Rates" by Dr. Hubert Havlik.
Last week’s Commerce Dept. GDP report: April 2016 was second-lowest April ever for electricity expenditures
Last week the Commerce Department published its estimate of the Gross Domestic Product through April. And the numerous components of the GDP.
Including consumer expenditures on everything from window coverings to spirits to flowers, seeds, potted plants to lotteries to dentists to ... electricity.
In April, consumption expenditures totaled 12,645.7 billion dollars, on an annual basis. About 12.7 trillion.
Expenditures on electricity were 177.6 billion dollars, again annualized. About 0.2 trillion.
Times didn’t note Mississippi residential rates are 9.2% lower than last year and 11.4% below national average.
We urge The New York Times and others to take greater care if and when they’re inclined to blame electric bills for poverty and layoffs. These are scourges for which there are multiple causes and multiple approaches to lessen their burden.
Spoiler alert! Here are the answers to the crossword puzzle, Power's History, in the August 2016 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly:
Across
1. Supremes ok regulation: munn
8. test for utility expense: prudence
12. with Tesla in war of currents: westinghouse
13. Kilowatt's first name: reddy
15. smartest guys in room: enron
17. father of TVA: lilienthal
20. FERC can regulate intrastate gas: ngpa
23. nuclear accident: tmi
24. Nobel winner led to solar power: millikan
27. developed television: farnsworth
At around $3.50 daily, electric bills are less than telephone bills on average
Today we continue to mine the mother lode, the 2015 Consumer Expenditure Survey released last week by the Labor Department, on what consumers spend on everything, including electric and natural gas service.
As we wrote yesterday, at four bucks a day, electric service averages 2.61 percent of Americans’ consumer expenditures. It’s a considerably lower percentage if expenditures made on behalf of consumers are counted, by government, insurance, etc.
The regional differences are dramatic.
Late last week, the Labor Department published October’s Consumer Price Index. The underlying detail shows consumer price trends for electric and natural gas utility service nationally and regionally.
Nationally, the overall CPI for all goods and services was up 1.6 percent over the last twelve months.
As is usual these days, the CPI for electric service lagged the overall CPI. CPI-Electricity was up 0.4 percent over the twelve months.
The Commerce Department has published detailed consumer expenditure data since 1959, as part of the estimation of the Gross Domestic Product. It published last week the numbers for October of this year.
For just the twenty-fifth month, out of six hundred and ninety-four months since 1959, electric bills fell below 1.4 percent of consumer expenditures.
From January 1959 through October 1999, electric bills had never fallen below 1.4 percent. November 1999 was the first time.
Each essential. Each dependent on the other.
December CPI up 0.7 percent, while electric rates down 1.2 percent
The Labor Department reported last week the Consumer Price Index, the CPI, for December 2015.
The CPI for all goods and services increased 0.7 percent during the twelve months through December. That's a low rate of inflation. The CPI for electricity specifically decreased 1.2 percent during the same twelve months. That's a medium rate of deflation.
You will see that this house everywhere is generously supplied with these outlets. They give life to a variety of electric devices, and make it possible for them to be used wherever and whenever they are needed. They are the source of much pleasure and convenience.
But today, with the electricity cut off, they might as well not exist...
If we listen to the talk of the people we shall hear them say over and over again: "Never did we realize before that electricity played such an important part in our lives."