WHAT THE FPC REPORT SHOWS US
McMillin, Miles
Public Power News What The FPC Report Shows Us By MILES McMILLIN WHAT THE PEOPLE in Tacoma, Wash., buy for $1.70, the people in St. Petersburg, Fla., pay $6.08. What the people in Eugene, Ore.,...
...But there are also other factors to explain why some public power systems are obliged to maintain rates on the same level with the average of the private companies...
...Olive, Ill...
...If you lived in any one of those communities as of January .1, 1943, and happened to use 100 kilowatt hours of electricity for a period of one month, one of those figures, depending on where you lived, will look familiar...
...A Possible Explanation By this time the correlation between low rates and public ownership should have sunk in pretty deep...
...In most cases it will be found that rate reductions are made impossible by the heavy diversions of plant revenues to general city expenses...
...In the other three you were paying the highest in those population brackets...
...If you lived in the others named you weren't so lucky...
...They are: Dothan, Ala., in the 10,000-50,000 bracket for 25 kilowatts...
...if you lived in Eugene you were paying the lowest for communities of 10,000 to 50,000 population...
...Of course, there is always the possibility that these three plants are operated inefficiently...
...If you lived in Newberry you were paying the lowest rate for 100 kilowatts of residential power in the United States for communities of 2,500 to 10,000 population...
...To deny that there is inefficiency and sometimes graft involved in the operation of publicly owned utilities is to take a position as ridiculous as the power trust propagandists will take in insisting that the three cities are typical of public ownership...
...What the people of Newberry, S. C, buy for $2.18, the people of Nantucket, Mass., pay $9.61...
...There is one disturbing element contained in the survey which, unless all the facts are known, will spoil the otherwise perfect correlation...
...In 100 cities of the United States, for example, all city expenses are paid out of the surplus earnings of the utility...
...in the 2,500 bracket for 250 kilowatts, Mt...
...And I, as a thoughtful citizen of Madison, Wis., who knows, or least thinks he knows, why the people of Tacoma are paying almost a dollar less than I am for 100 kilowatts, will tip him off...
...if you lived in Tacoma you were paying the lowest for cities over 50,000...
...The FPC Report Why, you are probably asking yourself—and especially if you live in St...
...He will find, as I did, that the people in Tacoma, Eugene, and Newberry own the utilities from which they buy their power, while the utilities in St...
...Petersburg, Hobbs, and Nantucket are owned by private individuals who, more likely than not, have their business offices somewhere on Wall Street...
...Stillwater, Okla., in the same bracket for 250 kilowatts...
...Whatever the explanation for the status of these three mavericks, it should be remembered that out of the 3,754 communities reporting, the 12 lowest were municipally owned...
...What the people in Eugene, Ore., buy for $1.80, the people of Hobbs, N. M., pay $6.55...
...As the figures show, if you lived in Tacoma, Eugene, or Newberry you were lucky...
...And that, despite the fact that of the total number of communities only 21.9 per cent were served by municipally owned systems while 78.1 per cent were served by private companies...
...Why do I have to pay 340 per cent more for my electricity, the thoughtful citizen of Nantucket will say, than the people of Newberry...
...But I happen to have before me the recently released survey of the Federal Power Commission which shows typical net monthly bills for electric service to residential consumers of cities of 2,500 population and more...
...And if these correlations don't make him suspicious, let him seek further in the FPC survey...
...And if he wants to find out what I know, or think I know, he had better send 25 cents to the FPC in Washington, D. C, and ask for publication FPC R—26...
...Petersburg, Hobbs, or Nantucket—should such disparities exist...
...There he will find that in all three of the population brackets the lowest typical bills for 25 kilowatts and 250 kilowatts happen to occur, by some strange coincidence, in communities where the people own their own electric systems...
...That is, that out of the nine cities paying the highest typical bills three of them own their own plants...
...Not that I am any more thoughtful a citizen than he...
Vol. 7 • November 1943 • No. 46
