10% irr

Here is what was going outside my bedroom window at 6:30 am this morning.

In my professional life I spend a lot of time en tango with the utility. They make "their case" and I make mine. When they go home they don't have to deal with me, yet I have to deal with them. Their model, and their arguments drive me absolutely insane.

They run the largest (and perfectly legal) monopoly in the united states. They are pretty much guaranteed a rate of return. They certainly act like it.

Exhibit A. Our street right out side our apartment window got the old jackhammer/backhoe treatment starting yesterday. Zero notice was given about this.

Exhibit B. When my wife returned home from work yesterday, one of the workers was sprawled out on our stoop. Sure its hot. And he's tired. My wife being a pretty agreeable gal actually said, "Sorry" as she approached. She reports: he sort of lazily got up and moved with an eye roll.

Exhibit C. Today's digging started at 6:30am!

Exhibit D. My electrical utility had been billing us on an average meter. Fair enough. They came and read the thing -shocker- they forgot to charge us around $50. And wouldn't you know it, they want that right away. So, having already paid my bill, they would like $50 more dollars immediately.

My utility bill, for electrical services, is around $50 a month. Of this bill $0.62 is for renewable portfolio standard programs. That's roughly 1%. My $50 forgot to charge you fee is 10% of my yearly electricity bill. I pay more money to my utility in accounting errors than I do to get (a very meager amount of) renewable energy onto our electricity grid.

Very often, when I am doing my work, I get the refrain, "We love renewables. We just don't want them funded on the backs of our rate payers."

Of course not, what with getting rattled out of bed at 6:30 am, our backs couldn't possibly take much more stress.