Politics is all fun and games - until someone gets hurt.  I've been warning for some time now that California's environmental and energy policy were going to cause a big spike in electrical rates, a spike that would hurt hard working Californians and drive jobs out of state.  Today's Los Angeles Times contains further proof of this concern. 

In an article entitled, "Sparks fly over rate plan by Southern California Edison," tells of SCE's proposed 16% plus rate hike for 2009, with more hikes planned for 2010 and 2011.  The article nails the main reason for this, "...Edison bills will go up because of the soaring cost of natural gas, which runs most of California's power plants."  As of last year, 42 percent of California's power to be exact.

Meanwhile, to the north, Pacific Gas and Electric announced an 11 percent increase in electricity costs from January of this year to January of next.  (I blogged about that here)
The Los Angeles Times article covered a hearing at Compton City Hall where residents packed a room to protest the proposed rate increase.  Due to increasing electrical costs and increasingly challenging economic times in California, Edison's past-due delinquencies increased by 14 percent last year.


The proposed rate hike would add more than $7 a month to the average customer's bill.  Many elderly and poor would be shielded from the rate increase, though, because current law dragoons utilities into yet another government program designed to transfer wealth from the middle class to the less-fortunate - a form of off-the-books welfare that liberals are trying to expand at every turn. 
Most of the electrical rate hikes have so far been due to the rapidly rising cost of natural gas, most of which must be imported into the state.  However, an increasing amount of the price hikes are due to California's environmental mandates for renewable energy, such as costly solar and unreliable wind.  And soon, a big chunk of the high cost of electricity will be driven by California's global warming law. 

So, while hard working Californians, such as those who packed Compton City Hall yesterday, suffer, California's political elites fiddle around, trying vainly to solve a worldwide issue: global warming. 

If only they would display a modicum of vision and courage and agree to lift California's archaic 32-year ban on the construction of modern nuclear power plants, each one of which would supply 5 percent of California's electrical needs while saving $2 billion a year worth of natural gas and preventing the emission of almost 9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. 

Simply put, more nuclear power is a "threefer" for California, since, by reducing the consumption of natural gas, we can reduce electrical rate hikes, dramatically reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, and import less natural gas from overseas, keeping dollars here at home. 
Perhaps soon elected representatives from Los Angeles, the Inland Empire and the Central Valley will care more for their hard working constituents than they do for the Sierra Club and other elitist groups who have welcomed recent energy price hikes.