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Congressman Griffith's Weekly E-Newsletter 1.13.23
This winter, heating bills across the country are expected to increase by 17% – the highest cost in more than a decade. According to the Energy Information Administration, those who use natural gas to heat their home this winter will see a cost increase of 28%.
As readers know, unfortunately, southwest Virginia has also experienced these rising energy costs. In November of last year, folks in my district saw their utility bills increase, due to a petition filed by American Electric Power (AEP), which operates Appalachian Power Company (APCo).
In September, AEP/APCo petitioned the Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) to increase its fuel factor – the money necessary to recoup their costs for fuel, etc. The company said they would need to raise rates to recover approximately $279 million in revenue over a two-year period. According to AEP/APCo, the proposed rate change would result in a Virginia residential customer, who uses 1,000 kWh/month, to experience an average of $20.17 increase to their bill. That’s a whopping 15.8%.
The SCC granted AEP/APCo a temporary rate increase on November 1, 2022, stating they would review the increase and make a final decision in early 2023.
Common-sense tells us that for the winter months, when bills tend to be higher due to more energy usage, southwest Virginia residents will see increases way above $20. And that’s exactly what happened. In December, the SCC heard from AEP/APCo customers, who voiced concerns about their higher electricity bills through public comment. One customer stated, “We cannot afford to heat our home this winter because our bill is over $250, and we keep our heat at 58 degrees in the winter.”
Another customer’s public comment indicated they were going to have to turn to batteries and lanterns in order to cut their energy bill because it was so unaffordable.
For many families on tight budgets, including those who live in my district, these higher prices inevitably mean having to choose between what bills they can afford to pay. Some families won’t be able to pay them all and will have to choose between feeding their children, buying needed medicine, or keeping their house warm at night.
In a letter sent by the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association to Senate and House leadership in September, the association stated, “About 29% of Americans who were surveyed had to reduce or forego expenses for basic household necessities to pay an energy bill in the last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Pulse Survey.”
This is unacceptable.
Why have we seen heating bills increase an exorbitant amount this winter? The reason is clear: bad energy and economic policies have caused energy prices to rise.
Two years into the Biden Administration and the effects of their energy policies are on full display. On his very first day in office, President Biden signed an executive order revoking the presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported fuel from Canada into the United States. Not long after, he signed an executive order suspending all new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters. Both actions were designed to be anti-fossil fuel, hampering domestic oil and gas production from the start.
And it’s not just Biden. During the last two years, we saw a $10 trillion increase in spending thanks to legislation passed by the Democratic-controlled House and Senate. This astronomical increase in spending led to the highest inflation the U.S. has seen in 40 years, peaking at 9.1% in June 2022. American families faced increasing costs across the board, everything from food to fertilizer to fuel. In December, year-over-year, fuel oil was up 41.5%, while electricity was up 14.3%.
Here in Washington, Republicans are focused on bringing down costs for Americans. During our second week back, I participated in a Republican House Energy and Commerce Committee roundtable, where we discussed these high energy prices, the burden it is putting on families and small business owners across the country, and what we can do here in Washington to help.
It’s time to bring down the cost of energy for Americans by enacting common-sense energy policies that encourage domestic energy development and incentivize increased production. In Congress, it’s up to us – the new Republican majority in the House – to rein in spending and put forth responsible economic policies that work toward tapering inflation.
If you have questions, concerns, or comments, feel free to contact my office. You can call my Abingdon office at 276-525-1405, my Christiansburg office at 540-381-5671, or my Washington office at 202-225-3861. To reach my office via email, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov.
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This is a generic, public newsletter. I think the Congressman remembers what I want. I want these people who can't pay their bills (and I'm not at all sure whether I'm going to be able to pay mine tomorrow, either, although I use only one electrical circuit) to be generating electricity for the rest of the Commonwealth. I want APCo to forget about the stupid idea of putting a nuclear reactor on mined-out karst land, and start offering solar collectors to its customers, thereby lowering their bills to a small individually negotiated payment plan to pay for the collection and filtering equipment. Within ten years I want APCo to be paying me. Because I already have enough sunshine to power the toilet and water heater, and there's plenty left over if it were only hooked up to batteries to power the light, the heater, and the computer. People trying to raise children on a sailor's income in Norfolk don't even have the option of using wood or propane heat, and even in Norfolk it's been pretty dang cold this winter--and we in the Ninth District have the sunshine those people need.
Regular readers may remember that this web site supported the proposed pipeline until we learned that it cut straight through the Dakota reservation. That's not cool. So? Bleep are they crying about? Plenty of alternate routes lead down the middle of the continent, and the pipeline could be built across the property of people who will happily sell it a right-of-way, but if APCo had tapped into that pipeline in 2012 you know they'd still be whining for a chance to inflate the cost of heating now, just because "we haven't had a price increase in ten years."
But we need to be thinking outside the fossil fuel box, here in the Ninth District. We have been treated like exploited consumers long enough. We ought to be producers. We ought to be making money. This situation ought to be paying Congressman Griffith and most of the rest of us, and not making life any harder for the more urban corners of Virginia either.
Crack the whip over that something-or-other Walker, Congressman, please! Inflating the cost of heating for people who can't get out and cut wood? Making him dance is too kind.
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