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Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Mar 17, 2007 02:40 PM
It's Up to a Vote: Will SMUD Annex Yolo County?
I'm not a political person. Nothing annoys me
more than someone who talks about politics, however there is one issue that is
coming before voters in November that I believe is too big to for me to not
voice an opinion on.
As I have mentioned earlier, I am not a political
person. Political talk gives me the hives and I do my best to avoid it. However,
there is one issue facing voters in November that I cannot ignore. I need to
talk about it and I want you to hear why I will be voting a certain way on
Measure H &
I
the SMUD Annexing Yolo
County.
Let me start by mentioning a few facts about my home and the bills we have been getting over the past 7 years. When we first moved into our home in August of 1999 our electricity and heating bills weren't too large. Generally my bills averaged $200/month. For a two story home with sticks for trees (our home had no shade at the beginning) and our regular use of air conditioning this was fair. However, as most of you know the California Energy Crisis hit us right around the same time as two aircrafts hit New York's Trade Centers and the effect was equally as devastating. My $200/month bills soared up to $600/month and I wasn't doing anything different than the months before. And to add insult to injury, we weren't even getting regular energy services and were subject to many blackouts and brownouts during the day. At this time my husband's business in downtown Davis faced many days with no electricity. The phone system didn't work and neither did the computers. Entire days at my husband's office were washouts as we could not take in any new orders. Most of my husband's clients were from the East coast and they had no understanding of what we were going through here in California.
Now as you can understand $600/month bills were getting out of hand--so we decided to take advantage of a California rebate that allowed us to buy solar panels for our home at 50% cost. The state of California footed half of the bills (which was $23,000). I figured that now we were home free. Our bills would soon drop! We were generating 2Kw of power each month--surely our bills would drop! There was some decline in our energy bills as California stumbled it's way out of the electrical crisis. But I found that PG&E was not giving us full credit for our energy. PG&E was only giving us a 80% credit for any energy that our solar panels generated. I guess they picked up 20% free power from every solar panel generator in their California domain. That must be a lot of extra cash!
Our monthly bills still stumbled along as well. We would be paying between $250-600 every month for the next few years (with the solar panels running). My electricity and gas bill for January 2006 and August of 2005 was over $600! Things got so bad this last year that I told my family we would not use the air conditioner during the Summer. It even meant that when it was 115 degrees outside that I had my family refrain from switching the air conditioner on. We kept the windows open at night and only used the smart vent (whole house fan) during the night and evening. Despite such measures we will got bills around $250! And that was with no air conditioning! Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?!
While I was getting these horrible utility bills I would compare my utility bills with my parents who had a 2 story home in Citrus Heights. They had no solar panels, but the big difference is that they had SMUD. During the California energy crisis they always had electricity. They had no brown outs or rolling blackouts. They blasted their air conditioner to their hearts content during August, while I had mine shut down. How much was their bill for air conditioning a 2 story house in August of 2006? $150 How much was mine for a similarly sized house, with no air conditioning and solar panels in August 2006? $250! What kills me is most of the year they pay $50-75/month in utility bills. I never had rates that low. Ever!
Is it any wonder that citizens of Yolo county want to throw PG&E away and use SMUD instead? Please, I beg you! Vote Yes on Measure H & I. Please help to lower my utility bills. I am doing everything I can to lower them myself. I have put up solar panels and I have even refrained from using my air conditioning in August. But I know what is fair and PG&E has not been fair. We have been paying an unnecessarily high burden for using PG&E. Please take PG&E off of our backs and give us SMUD.
SMUD Annexation Links
Let me start by mentioning a few facts about my home and the bills we have been getting over the past 7 years. When we first moved into our home in August of 1999 our electricity and heating bills weren't too large. Generally my bills averaged $200/month. For a two story home with sticks for trees (our home had no shade at the beginning) and our regular use of air conditioning this was fair. However, as most of you know the California Energy Crisis hit us right around the same time as two aircrafts hit New York's Trade Centers and the effect was equally as devastating. My $200/month bills soared up to $600/month and I wasn't doing anything different than the months before. And to add insult to injury, we weren't even getting regular energy services and were subject to many blackouts and brownouts during the day. At this time my husband's business in downtown Davis faced many days with no electricity. The phone system didn't work and neither did the computers. Entire days at my husband's office were washouts as we could not take in any new orders. Most of my husband's clients were from the East coast and they had no understanding of what we were going through here in California.
Now as you can understand $600/month bills were getting out of hand--so we decided to take advantage of a California rebate that allowed us to buy solar panels for our home at 50% cost. The state of California footed half of the bills (which was $23,000). I figured that now we were home free. Our bills would soon drop! We were generating 2Kw of power each month--surely our bills would drop! There was some decline in our energy bills as California stumbled it's way out of the electrical crisis. But I found that PG&E was not giving us full credit for our energy. PG&E was only giving us a 80% credit for any energy that our solar panels generated. I guess they picked up 20% free power from every solar panel generator in their California domain. That must be a lot of extra cash!
Our monthly bills still stumbled along as well. We would be paying between $250-600 every month for the next few years (with the solar panels running). My electricity and gas bill for January 2006 and August of 2005 was over $600! Things got so bad this last year that I told my family we would not use the air conditioner during the Summer. It even meant that when it was 115 degrees outside that I had my family refrain from switching the air conditioner on. We kept the windows open at night and only used the smart vent (whole house fan) during the night and evening. Despite such measures we will got bills around $250! And that was with no air conditioning! Am I the only one who sees something wrong with this picture?!
While I was getting these horrible utility bills I would compare my utility bills with my parents who had a 2 story home in Citrus Heights. They had no solar panels, but the big difference is that they had SMUD. During the California energy crisis they always had electricity. They had no brown outs or rolling blackouts. They blasted their air conditioner to their hearts content during August, while I had mine shut down. How much was their bill for air conditioning a 2 story house in August of 2006? $150 How much was mine for a similarly sized house, with no air conditioning and solar panels in August 2006? $250! What kills me is most of the year they pay $50-75/month in utility bills. I never had rates that low. Ever!
Is it any wonder that citizens of Yolo county want to throw PG&E away and use SMUD instead? Please, I beg you! Vote Yes on Measure H & I. Please help to lower my utility bills. I am doing everything I can to lower them myself. I have put up solar panels and I have even refrained from using my air conditioning in August. But I know what is fair and PG&E has not been fair. We have been paying an unnecessarily high burden for using PG&E. Please take PG&E off of our backs and give us SMUD.
SMUD Annexation Links
Posted: Mon - October 2, 2006 at 10:08 AM