Law & Lawyers

Gas Blew Away Coal

Gas now pulling way ahead in electric generation, coal’s lead razor-thin for the year

Energy Department data through November 2015 was released last week. It’s stunning how far coal has fallen. 

In November, coal’s share of the nation’s electricity generation fell to 29 percent. That’s right, a number starting with a 2. 

January CPI: How Far Have Electric Prices Fallen Regionally?

In last year, electric prices fell 6.2% in the northeast (9.9% in Boston area, 11% in NY area) and 3.5% in the south (9.5% in Houston area, 8.7% in Dallas area)

On Friday, the Consumer Price Index for January was announced. Yesterday's column analyzed this ultimate measure of consumer prices, for all goods and services, and then electric and natural gas service specifically. Pretty interesting. 

But the numbers were averaged for the country as a whole. Today's column will look at the indices for regions and metro areas. 

Electric Rates Drop 3% While CPI Rises 1%

Yesterday’s CPI showed electric rates dropped dramatically in February year-over-year

Did you hear about March 16's Labor Dept. report of the Consumer Price Index? The CPI rose one percent in February 2016, from February 2015. So?

You may not have heard much about the numbers behind the CPI report. You may not have heard that the average price American consumers pay for electric utility service (electric rates) dropped three percent. 

And what consumers pay for natural gas utility service dropped ten percent. This is big news. Electric and gas utility service is becoming cheaper before our eyes. 

No Consumer Advocates! 50 Years Ago

PUF editorial in 1966 shows what a dramatically different culture it was then.

Check out this editorial from 50 years ago, in the April 14, 1966 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly. In this criticism of the notion of a utility consumer advocate, the rhetoric reveals a gigantic gulf between American society of then and of now.

We Must Be Doing Something Right

CPI-Electricity fell 2.1% while overall CPI rose 1.1% 

The Consumer Price Index was published Tuesday for the period through April. Electricity? The CPI for electricity has fallen 2.1 percent, April 2016 as compared with a year ago, April 2015.

During the same period, the overall CPI has risen 1.1 percent. This means electricity is significantly less expensive than it was last year.

The CPI for food has risen 0.9 percent. The CPI for all items, except food and energy, has risen 2.1 percent. The CPI for all services, except energy services, has risen 3 percent.

Any way you cut it, electricity has become cheaper.

More on the Famous Founder of Public Utilities Reports

Owen Young had a “hazy plan in mind” to put together a central information source on utility regulatory cases and decisions.

In 1932, in the depths of the great depression, Owen Young was considered by many to be the favorite to be elected the nation's next president. The chairman of General Electric, GE, and the Radio Corporation of America, RCA, was famous and admired for his many accomplishments in business and public service. 

Utility Service Prices Continue to Drop

Overall prices 0.8% higher, while electric prices 1% lower

The Consumer Price Index for July was published Tuesday, August 16. The CPI for all goods and services rose eight tenths of a percent (compared to a year ago). 

But the CPI for electric utility service fell one percent. And the CPI for gas utility service fell four tenths of a percent.

Sept. 2016 crossword puzzle answers

Spoiler alert!  Here are the answers to the crossword puzzle, Rural Coops, in the September 2016 issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly:

Across

2. association of coops: nreca

5. original name of coops agency: rea

6. coop finance corp.: cfc

8. largest coop, in Texas: pedernales

12. main fuel of coop plants: coal

13. U.S. senator pushed to start coops: norris

14. fourth largest coop, in Florida: withlacoochee

16. in very many coop names: member

20. small Midwest state with eighty coops: iowa

Electric Prices Lagged Inflation for Residential, Commercial, Industrial

Residential electric prices increased eight-tenths as fast as inflation, commercial seven-tenths as fast, industrial nine-tenths as fast

All this week, we’ve been filling you in, on what the August 2016 electric price data published last week (the Consumer Price Index and Producer Price Index) means for utility policy and regulation.

There was too much to fit in a single column.

August Electric Bills 1.5% of Consumer Expenditures

Key reason: in just four other months in history have households consumed more than in this July.

On Friday, the Commerce Department released its data on consumer expenditures in August. Electric bills were 1.5 percent of expenditures. 

That’s a low percentage. But slightly higher than in recent Augusts. 

Electric bills were 1.44 percent of consumer expenditures in the last two Augusts, in 2015 and 2014. This August was six-hundredths of a percent higher.

A slightly higher percentage is not surprising. Electricity consumption was way up this summer.