Many Prepare for Shock of Higher Bills
It was like sticking your finger in an electric socket: The pain felt Wednesday by millions of Californians jolted by the massive power rate hike was sudden--and it wouldn’t let go of you.
“It’s outrageous. I’ll turn my main switch off before I’ll pay a $200 electric bill,” fumed Brian Mills, a Santa Monica movie grip who discovered his $144.64 electric bill will probably jump to about $197 the next time he writes a check to the Southern California Edison Co.
“I think it will be a terrible hardship on a great many senior citizens,” predicted Ann Snyder, a resident of Leisure World in Laguna Woods, which was built in the 1960s when electricity was considered an efficient, economical energy source.
Snyder, whose home is outfitted with electric appliances, heating and cooling systems, said she tries to conserve wherever possible. She does her washing in the evening and disconnects her appliances--even her water heater--during the day. Still, she says, her bill runs between $50 and $60 a month and is likely to go somewhat higher.
“When I’m not home, the only thing operating is my refrigerator, and it’s an energy-saving refrigerator,” said the former Laguna Woods councilwoman.
Electric users throughout the state scurried for pencils and paper to calculate how much Tuesday’s rate increase will cost them. The Public Utilities Commission action boosts rates by as much as 42% for some Edison customers and as much as 46% for some served by Northern California’s Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Customers of other utilities, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and municipal power companies in Anaheim and elsewhere, will not be affected.
Customers won’t see increases until the May billing cycle. But The Times contacted some and helped them estimate their increases from power consumption levels on their current bills.
The new rate structure is designed to impose the greatest increases on homes and businesses that use the most power. Indeed, some frugal users were relieved to find that their bills will increase little or not at all. But all were angry over the state’s electricity crisis and skeptical that they will remain untouched.
Mills, 52, was shocked by his 36% estimated increase.
“I have a wife, two kids, two dogs, two parakeets and four lizards,” he said. “I guess the lizards go first. We’ll pull the plug on the little lizard heater.”
Mills has already disconnected clocks in his house and the backyard swimming pool’s motor. Tuesday night, he turned off his refrigerator while the family slept. “My wife was skeptical. She thought stuff might go bad. But the only thing that happened was the ice cream got a little soft,” he said.
Pamala Morgan can measure the effect of this week’s record electricity rate hike in dollars and cents on her monthly bill. The cost to her family’s dreams, though, are harder to gauge.
Morgan and her husband, Joseph, a raw plastics dealer, had hoped to move out of a Huntington Beach rental and into their own home later this year. But a sharp decline in plastic production--some of it tied to recent power outages--has cut Joseph Morgan’s sales by about 75%, she said.
The resulting drop in income combined with the rise in the household electric bill--at least $15 a month--could mean a dream delayed, Pamala Morgan said.
“We were counting on a good year . . . to be able to buy,” said Morgan, 35, as she took a break from home-schooling the couple’s children, ages 11 and 9. “If he doesn’t have a good year, then we’re going to have to postpone that.”
The calculations done by The Times are based on a four-tiered rate structure that could change in the next 30 days as the PUC staff refines the numbers. The estimates include a 9% rate increase adopted by the PUC in January but do not include taxes or a 10% discount that is scheduled to end in March 2002.
Electric bills for Balboa Island resident Sandy Ranier, 50, would increase by more than $17 from the current average of about $80 a month. “If it went up much more, then there would be problems,” Ranier said.
Huntington Beach banker Marianne Strombitski said she and her husband can afford the extra $20 the rate hike may add to their $90 bill if they maintain their current consumption. “But if we increase our usage, we’re going to move up a bracket, and have to pay $40. The bottom line is we’re going to have to change our lifestyles because we refuse to pay the higher rate.”
Gary Reason was fuming as he marched into PG&E;’s West Sacramento office Wednesday to hash out his soaring electricity bill, which could jump by $100 a month. “It’s absolutely ridiculous what we’re going through,” he said.
Sandra Magallanes said she kept her Sacramento home a chilly 65 degrees last summer. This year her husband and five children will “open the windows,” she said. “It’s going to get hot.”
In Bakersfield, 70-year-old LaVerne Rogers, a retired potato packer and motel maid, said her winter power bills average $23. But summertime, with a house full of fans and a swamp cooler on, will be a different story. So she’s mapping her conservation plans.
“I even took out the outside porch light,” she said. “The neighbors have porch lights so I’m just using their light. I come up with all kinds of strategies.”
In the San Luis Obispo County city of Atascadero, Janet Coughlin faces a 26% increase. “My husband has sent me outside to hang the clothes this week” rather than run the dryer, she said. Her bill would go up about $29 under the PUC rate hike.
At PG&E;’s corporate headquarters in San Francisco, Edna Johnson came Wednesday to complain about the hikes. “I’ve already cut down television for my kids,” said the single mother of three. “I guess I’ll be doing a lot more barbecuing because my stove is electric. I just don’t know what more I’m gonna do.”
Those with smaller homes and smaller electric bills fared better Wednesday as they calculated their increases.
Lionel Okun, 83, who lives in Leisure World-Seal Beach, paid $28.52 for electricity last month. Under the new formula, his bill would barely change.
“My usage is not very high for two reasons: I don’t have heat on, and I don’t have air-conditioning on,” Okun said.
He also doesn’t cook at home. “I share dinners with a friend, and I spend more than two hours at her house every night,” Okun said. “She does the cooking.”
Even people who don’t expect to be hit hard share anger over the state’s power mess.
Betty Miller, 63, of Laguna Beach discovered her $50-a-month bill won’t rise much. Still she blames Gov. Davis for the crisis. “He fumbled the ball. I think we have him to thank for this,” she said.
In Westlake Village, Clarence Kutschinski, 76, lives on a fixed income and clips coupons with his wife to get by. He was looking ahead Wednesday to tough times, although his own power bill will probably remain stable for now.
“This baloney affects us because businesses are raising prices,” said Kutschinski. “I’m furious, and I expect my bill will eventually go up. We are thrifty. We clean everything on our plates. We don’t waste anything, and now we have to worry about higher electrical bills. There is not much more for us to save.”
Roy Smith and Bud Jonke, neighbors who live near Disneyland in Anaheim--where rates won’t increase, at least for the time being--deplore the power situation and what they see as waste by large electricity users.
“Driving down Katella [Avenue near Disneyland], you see all those lights,” Smith said. “Things like that are why we’re short on energy. The illumination is for show, not for any real purpose.”
He too blames elected officials in Sacramento. “There’s been so little foresight,” he said. “Our so-called leaders . . . should have seen this coming.”
Rate increases also will affect consumers in invisible ways. Homeowner associations will pay more to light walkways, tennis courts and community rooms. That means increased costs and pressure for increased dues as associations plan new budgets.
Times staff writers Eric Bailey, Scott Martelle, Kristina Sauerwein, Christine Hanley, Jerry Hicks and Kimi Yoshino contributed to this story. Times researcher Norma Kaufman and correspondent Sally Ann Connell also contributed.
