Excess Power Sales, High Electric Rates

* I was outraged when I read “By Luck or Skill, DWP Gets the Last Laugh” (Aug. 3). Why is it a time for joy and “glee,” as the reporter characterized DWP General Manager David Freeman’s feelings? While the DWP is celebrating the reduction of its huge debt by raising money from excess power sales, our neighbors to the south are struggling to scrape pennies together to pay their exorbitant bills and still survive.

Hey DWP, have you ever heard of price-gouging? You might want to look into it, because it sounds an awful lot like what you are doing right now. Just as vendors and contractors often make extra money off of disasters such as earthquakes by selling their services at higher than normal prices, the DWP is selling power to other utilities at inflated prices during this time of energy crisis--and that’s wrong.

GRACE BANTUGAN

Northridge

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* Came that ugly time of the month, time to pay the bills. When I opened my electric bill, I thought that they had made a meter-reading error because the bill was almost three times what it was the month before. I got out the last four bills and compared them. The kilowatt hours were very close to each other, so no meter-reading error. What I did find was the power-exchange rate factor in the last four bills went from .03497 to .03635 to .08405 to .21022, or over a six times increase.

Gee, forget about $2 gas at the pumps, I wonder what the electric rates will multiply to by Christmas?

THOMAS SLED

Grover Beach

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* Why are we sitting back and complacently accepting blackouts?

How much longer will we allow the electric companies, politicians and developers to continue building houses on top of houses with the possibility of more frequent and longer blackouts? Unless developers and the electric companies can guarantee 100% electricity 24 hours a day, even during the hottest spells, the politicians should put a moratorium on development.

MARDEL K. HERVEY

San Juan Capistrano