To cover the added costs associated with Washington state's cap-and-trade program, natural gas provider Puget Sound Energy (PSE) has received permission to raise its rates, but is not allowed to tell customers why they are having to pay more for energy.
The Center Square published a report recently about the scheme, which is part of the Democrat-passed Climate Commitment Act, which was signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee, also a Democrat.
PSE serves about 800,000 customers spanning six counties, the report states. And at the recommendation of Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, another Democrat, PSE is prohibited from informing customers why their bills have suddenly spiked.
In order to generate the $16.8 million it needs to cover losses from the Climate Commitment Act, PSE has increased its costs by 3.25 percent. A typical household using 64 therms of natural gas per month will now see a bill increase of about $3.71 per month, with no explanation as to why.
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Inslee LIED to Washingtonians, said emissions taxes would reduce natural gas prices
The reason why PSE is prohibited from telling its customers why they are suddenly having to pay more for the same amount of natural gas has everything to do with false promises that Inslee's Department of Ecology made before the Climate Commitment Act was passed and signed into law.
Inslee's people promised Washingtonians that added taxes on carbon dioxide (CO2) and other "greenhouse gas" emissions would end up leading to natural gas price reductions, not increases.
Kathy Taylor, the department's Air Quality Program Manager, wrote a letter to Sen. Shelly Short claiming that an allowance price of $41 per metric ton of CO2 means that "natural gas would decrease by about 1 percent."
In a July 3 letter, Assistant Attorney General Nina Suetake told the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) that the Office of the Public Counsel was "also concerned with PSE's proposal to itemize the State Carbon Reduction Charge and State Carbon Reduction Credit on customer bills."
"If all program-specific charges were included as line items, customer bills would quickly become incomprehensible. We believe the issue of whether to itemize these charges and credits on bills requires more discussion in upcoming workshops to ensure that the itemization would add to customer understanding and experience, rather than unnecessarily complicate utility bills."
One month later, the three-member board of the UTC, appointed by Inslee, agreed with Suetake's statements, stating that PSE "should not include the proposed 'carbon reduction charge' as a line item on customer bills."
"Public Counsel [Suetake] correctly observes that including all program charges on customer bills would quickly result in lengthy and confusing bills. Additionally, only those charges or credits that inure to the benefit of customers should be included as line items on customer bills."
The panel ultimately ruled that the only charges or credits that should appear on PSE bills are those that "benefit" customers. In Inslee and his regime's view, it does not benefit natural gas customers in Washington to know why they are now having to pay more for energy.
"The Utilities Commission approved the rate hike, but made it illegal for Puget Sound Energy to list that on people's bills," said Myers. "So people will see their rates go up, but they won't know why, and in fact, the Utilities Commission has prohibited Puget Sound Energy from telling its customers."
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