Politicians Get the Gold Mine, the Middle Class Gets the Shaft
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21 responses to “Politicians Get the Gold Mine, the Middle Class Gets the Shaft”
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This goes into the tall grass so follow closely: The 2007 rewrite of the law stated that if, and only if, Dominion has “excess earnings” can the SCC consider cutting its base rates. In fact, it says the utility has to have shown excess earnings two rate cases in a row. There was such a finding in 2015 (you can thank me later) so the pump is primed for 2021….
Therefore every accounting gimmick, every authorized charge must be viewed as a way for Dominion to prevent a finding that it had excess earnings between 2017-2020. That is the point of the “customer credit offset reinvestment” invented in 2018. There are other accounting games. But this business of allowing them to credit these bad bills against their excess earnings is going to be “yuge” when the tally is done. The base rates — source of the excess profits — are much better protected now.
Some in the Assembly get this, but you can count them on one hand. Remember, bill credits or actual rate cuts would help everybody, including the lower income consumers. They too are now subsidizing neighbors who didn’t or couldn’t pay. Some of the second round of federal money could have covered these bills. Why wasn’t that done…hmmm? Dominion wanted this, that’s why.
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So, I pay for it via rate increases or I pay for it via taxes (federal or state). Pick your pot of money.
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Well, in theory the company could eat it and then the stockholders pay. Yeah, THAT’s gonna happen….
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Big D is “just another utility company” now. Gone are its aspirations to be an energy company.
laissez le bon dividendes rouler.
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Well, in theory the company could eat it and then the stockholders pay. Yeah, THAT’s gonna happen….
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Or the General Assembly could pay for relief out of the $3 billion or so in federal COVID assistance and/or new revenue this year. But… that would be less spending on other new stuff!
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I’d be curious to know if “forgiveness” extends to other utilities in the state, the rural electric co-ops and AEP and what funds they would use to offset those losses.
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No, Big D only. See my next comment.
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No, Big D only. See my next comment.
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For the other utilities, AEC and the rural electric cooperatives – are they also regulated by the SCC with regard to rates and “profits”, etc, similar to Dom or is it a different thing?
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This goes into the tall grass so follow closely: The 2007 rewrite of the law stated that if, and only if, Dominion has “excess earnings” can the SCC consider cutting its base rates. In fact, it says the utility has to have shown excess earnings two rate cases in a row. There was such a finding in 2015 (you can thank me later) so the pump is primed for 2021….
Therefore every accounting gimmick, every authorized charge must be viewed as a way for Dominion to prevent a finding that it had excess earnings between 2017-2020. That is the point of the “customer credit offset reinvestment” invented in 2018. There are other accounting games. But this business of allowing them to credit these bad bills against their excess earnings is going to be “yuge” when the tally is done. The base rates — source of the excess profits — are much better protected now.
Some in the Assembly get this, but you can count them on one hand. Remember, bill credits or actual rate cuts would help everybody, including the lower income consumers. They too are now subsidizing neighbors who didn’t or couldn’t pay. Some of the second round of federal money could have covered these bills. Why wasn’t that done…hmmm? Dominion wanted this, that’s why.
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It really has the expression “if, and only if” in the law?
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No, that’s a translation of a thick paragraph written by $500 an hour lawyers (2007 rates.)
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No, that’s a translation of a thick paragraph written by $500 an hour lawyers (2007 rates.)
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Well, it’s a good phrase. Worth every penny
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Thanks for the clear explanation, Steve. My first reaction was that it was no big deal because Dominion would have kept the money as part of its profits. Now I see the reason why Dominion is willing to take a hit on its profits.
You are right about not many legislators understanding this aspect. But, it goes beyond not many understanding. This provision was part of the budget conference report. Therefore, even if many did understand the implications, the only way they could have voted against it would have been to vote against the budget bill as a whole (conference reports are an up or down vote, no amendments allowed). So, Dominion just had to concentrate on the budget conferees. I don’t know how many of the conferees understood the implications of the provisions, but it certainly did not hurt Dominion having Norment as a conferee and Saslaw as a conference “adviser” (whatever that is).
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A cynic might think that it was a choice between knowingly helping Dominion but the optics were so opaque no normal taxpayer would “get” it.
But also, the idea that all taxpayers should “pay” for a Dominion issue seems not a good thing, if we’re talking about people outside of Dominions service district that have their own taxes and non-Dominion electric bills to deal with.
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A cynic might think that it was a choice between knowingly helping Dominion but the optics were so opaque no normal taxpayer would “get” it.
But also, the idea that all taxpayers should “pay” for a Dominion issue seems not a good thing, if we’re talking about people outside of Dominions service district that have their own taxes and non-Dominion electric bills to deal with.
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Dear Taxpayer,
An equation for you:
2xF-35=CVN-77
Your household’share is $14,391 for the 375 built.-
And I’ve never seen one fly…..saw the F-22s flying in and out of Langley, and got to inspect one in a hanger, a VANG plane. A senior officer told me that going up against F-15s was like “clubbing baby seals.”
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I knew we were in trouble when the AF began naming their platforms, one by one, after cities. Like SSBN and SSN, fish don’t vote.
I love dropping hints on things. No such thing as stealth.
Hint: astronomy. Planets are seen on distance stars not because of their mass but because of the effect of the mass. Your LAN, and all of your neighbor’s wireless routers, creates an observable sea in which there are disturbances .
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