Readers React: Higher DWP rates might make Angelenos better consumers of electrcity

To the editor: While I applaud your concern for Los Angeles consumers regarding tacked-on taxes and revenues usurped by the city from utility fees, there is a positive hidden environmental impact. Motivation for consumers, both households and businesses, to install solar panels more often than not is tied to the return on investment. (“Behind the DWP rate hike: Where will that money really go?,” editorial, July 31)

As long as the city requires revenue anyway, why not derive those funds from products that society is trying to eliminate (fossil fuels to generate electricity) and thereby increase behavior that will improve our environment?

Ron Garber, Duarte

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To the editor: Your editorial on the proposed rate increase by the Department of Water and Power highlights the double-whammy the ratepayer gets from both an increase in rates and an increase in the utility tax.

As many consider the transfer by the DWP of revenue to the city’s general fund to be simply a tax in disguise, any rate increase that accommodates it will also contribute to an increase in the utility tax — a tax on a tax, a politician’s dream.

Walter Hall, North Hollywood

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