An earlier poster mentioned the Pres. Reagan de-regulation mandates regarding Gas and Power.. Guess what, another conservative method of sucking more money from the pockets of the shrinking middle class and filling the coffers of the rich and ultra-rich.

If an 11% rate increase ups my Nevada Power Stock Dividends by 15%, I’m in!!! woohoo, poor power sucking low-life’s ha ha ha.

We’re not far from heading the direction of San Diego Ca, where home buyers must qualify not only for their mortgage but also the taxes and utilities they will be paying, which can cost 50% of what their monthly mortgage is. Rediculous.

And whomever says we still have the cheapest electric rates around is just being ignorant of the real context. It’s usage that’s the real issue. How many days a year in Santa Barbara will a typical homeowner try to cool their dwelling -20/-40 degrees from the high outside temperature?

In Southern Nevada that has been the real usage pattern for many many years.

The pool filter pump at my home now runs 30% less than I ran it 10 years ago, but costs 50% more to run and requires a lot of tiring manual hand-cleaning.

It’s a fact we live in the desert and we choose to. Electrical usage is higher than a coastal or cooler community, but to be raped for it is the problem. Swamp coolers… oh oh… water usage increase and pretty useless during monsoon season.

And watch out, Natural Gas hasn’t peaked yet. Out east, heating oil has gone up 800% in 20 years, Natural Gas is heading that way next.

And we haven’t even started talking about water? LVVWD Sr. Staff and Engineers know the real numbers, the real issues. Developers should’ve been hit with funding infrastructure over the last 15+ year boom. Not just bigger service connection related fees, but a significant contribution to the issue of water sources. But Mrs Mulroy could not be the one to pass that request to the County Commission, no, think of all the illicit contributions and bribes they would’ve lost.

Ever wonder who end’s up owning the prime highway/beltway off-ramp service stores… if you could ever dig through the piles of corporations and partnerships related to these land deals, it would not be a surpise the 20 or 30 people in the state who seem to have a “head’s up” and some sort of bureaucratic privilege of getting richer at the expense of ethics, morality and law.

Bottom line, no matter how you change your lifestyle. No matter how much “green” you add to your home, auto’s, etc, monopolistic utilities will ALWAYS end up making the profit they desire. We are a captive audience and have no where to run.

In the sense of households making less than $125,000/yr, no matter what you make, the visceral politico-economic structure of a flawed, greedy, corrupted system will always make it so that “whatever you make, that is what it’ll cost to live.” The majority of our children may never be able to own a home, or not one that is reasonable. Recent sub-prime greed has nailed that coffin, just like S&L’s did in the 80’s.

A machine that feeds on itself is what we are now living in. $400bn to Iraq, (Can you say OIL and Trans-continental NATURAL GAS pipe-line starting in Afghanistan), Retirees not being able to live a reasonable quality of life that they planned for, and payed into, years ago and have been lied to and stolen from. Don’t worry, many of us will be there one day.

Oh, did I mention Health care, Health Insurance, Medical profession PACs, partnerships, corporations, HMOs… and the other “quasi-monopolies”, the Pharmaceuticals giants.

Nope I guess I didn’t.

This is insane when someone is on a tight budget. I rarely cook and have no washing maching in the apartment. I need the air and hot water so what is one to do? Nevada Power is making record profits and a peasant like me is treading water just to stay afloat.

http://www.vegasrex.com/2007/05/23/nevada-power-and-the-puc-ready-to-strike-again/

Frankly, if you do not vote everyone out of office who did not vehemently oppose this increase, then you deserve it.

The reason this doesn’t happen on the east coast is because people actually pay attention to the actions of their local legislators.

The IQ of the average Nevadan is probably not quite as high, and those in office here are pretty confident that they can do as they please without the public noticing.

What did YOUR local representative say about this increase?

This all also potentially runs afoul of anti-trust laws, but again, who is going to fight it?

The have monopolies in Russia, Iraq, and Cuba.

Supposedly our free market is what makes us superior.

Do you see a free market at play here?