Louisiana:Skyrocketing electric bills prompt citizen' s concern

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September 27, 2000

Skyrocketing electric bills prompt citizen' s concern

By PATRICK THOMAS September 27, 2000 Email this story.

The Terrebonne Parish Council agonized over skyrocketing utility bills Tuesday night.

Meeting as the Public Services Committee, members wondered if there might be any relief for the elderly, disabled and others on fixed incomes who have been battered with high bills over the past few months.

Parish Utilities Director Tom Bourg said his operation has deferred about $1.2 million in billings over the past four months to give its 10,000 customers in Houma some relief.

That money will be recovered through an average-billing program in which customers pay more in the cooler months when they use less electricity, he said.

But the rest of the total $2.7 million increase for those four months could not be absorbed or delayed by the public utility, Bourg said.

" The energy-cost charge is a direct pass-on to the consumer," he said. " We depend upon natural gas to fuel the Houma generating station."

And the price for that commodity has more than doubled recently to $5 or more per thousand cubic feet. That comes to about 7 cents per kilowatt hour.

The Houma plant is able to get a good deal on coal-powered electricity transmitted from Alexandria at a cost of less than 2 cents per kilowatt hour.

" We are fortunate to have a coal component to our energy mix," he said.

But that cheap power is limited, by contract, to 23 megawatts, and the peak consumption in Houma this summer has been 70 megawatts.

There is another problem, too, Bourg told the council.

" What has become of increasing concern in the market - what we haven' t seen before - we are saddled with transmission constraints," he said.

Councilman Wayne Thibodeaux, after hearing Bourg' s forecast for the near future, said, " You seem to be suggesting that the price will go up even more."

" I' m not overly optimistic," said Bourg, who explained that surplus power will be even less available in coming weeks because most utilities shut down parts of their operations for

council, continue on 9a

maintenance before winter.

Councilman J.B. Breaux suggested that the Houma utility dip into its surpluses to lower bills, but Bourg said future maintenance and other capital costs require keeping adequate reserves.

" I don' t see any quick fix," said Breaux glumly.

Parish President Bobby Bergeron agreed.

" The cost of energy is not going to go down in the foreseeable future," he said. " The price of natural gas will continue to escalate. \'85

" This very problem is going to be remarkably good for our economy. We' re all in the oilfield whether we like it or not. Everybody depends on the oilfield. With good comes bad."

Councilman Clayton Voisin said parish government should assign its grant writers some new tasks.

" Hopefully, we can get some federal money," he said, referring to the sort of allotments low-income people in the North get during winters.

Chief Administrative Officer Otis Logue told the council that not all Houma utility customers are eligible for the average-billing program.

Logue said participants must have been a customer for at least one year and could not have missed a monthly payment in the past year.

Members voted unanimously to keep the matter in committee. All council members are members of the committee. Councilman Harold Lapeyre was out of town.

http://www.houmatoday.com/news/stories/000927n2.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), September 27, 2000


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