On paper I am an educated person. I am in possession of two graduate degrees. That means that depending on what statistics one believes I am one of 6.9 to 11 percent of the United States population with one graduate degree. I could not find any statistics for the percentage of the United States Population with two graduate degrees. At any rate, one might think that I could read and understand most newspaper articles and most personal utility bills. Yet, I find that I am unable to do either with any degree of proficiency. For example, on Saturday, July 25, 2015 I was reading an editorial in the St. Petersburg Tribute by Mario Lopez entitled “Officials should fight for affordable energy”. In this editorial the author raises important questions about the ability or inability of low-income families to pay basic bills including energy bills.
The authors is concerned in this editorial about the financial impact of the “Clean Power Plan” which the Environmental Protection Agency is set to finalize next month. This plan is going to be the primary or perhaps the sole reason that utilities costs become affordable for many in the United States. The author states, “According to the EPA’s own climate model emulator, the regulation would have a negligible impact on the environment-just 0.018 degrees over the next 85 years.”
The author does not raise the questions:
· How are the current energy rates determined by the energy companies such as Duke Energy? (I am using Duke because it is the energy company my condo association uses. They do not seem that different than other energy companies with whom I have done business.)
· Do the companies currently make a profit?
· What are the salaries of the top executives of the energy companies?
· What can be done about the banning of solar sales in states such as Florida, which is where I am currently living?
Since I had just paid my Duke Energy bill I again looked at the confusing bill. It reads in part:
Energy charge 8.76
First 1000 kWh 66.58
Above 1000 kWh 20.85
Fuel charge
First 1000 kWh 43.23
Above 1000 kWh 13.48
Total Electric Cost 153.24
Gross receipts tax 3.93
Municipal franchise fee 9.82
Municipal utility tax 11.85
Total current bill 183.85*
*Cost for my relatively small two-bedroom villa/condo.
Apparently energy charge does not cover fuel. What does it cover? The delivery of energy without the use of fuel? The fuel charge when fuel is much cheaper covers what and is arrived at how? What is the customer charge, which is separate from energy charge and fuel charge? A franchise fee is not the same as a utility tax which is different that a receipts tax?
My, oh my! My head is spinning. Perhaps I should realize that the employees, including the top executives are making barely enough to eek out a decent living. I did check and the line employees seem to me making a very decent income but not an outrageous one. The top five executives, on the other hand, are making the following amounts:
Name/title Cash Equity Other Total
Marc Manly 926,616 1,175,619 154, 381 2,256,616
Ex VP and President
Lynn Good 2,236.215 5,290.357 331,574 7,948,146
Vice Chair, President and Chief Ex Officer
Dhiaa Jamil 1,037,634 1,273,601 89,910 2,401,145
Ex VP and President
Steven Young 827.913 771,522 50,296 1,649,731
Ex VP and CFO
Lloyd Yates 1,927,827 1,107,076 272,487 3,305,390
Ex VP and President
NYSE-DUK - 71.67 +.13
52 week low 69.47
52 week high 89.97
Market cap : 50.76B
How does one make sense out of all of this? Duke energy is paying its executives rather well. To be sure there are companies, which pay higher salaries to its top executives and those that pay lower. The average pay of Duke’s professional and non-professional employees is very respectable. The Duke stockholders are making a profit of an average of .78 to .79 per share.
I compared my bill from May of 2014 to the July 14, 2015 bill. I discovered that:
KWH energy charge was down slightly for the first 1000 hours and slightly up for over 1000 hours.
KWH fuel charge was up for the first 1000 hours and up for over 1000 hours. Basically the overall charge was about the same.
I am not attempting to single out Duke Energy but it does seem pretty representative. My concerns are that:
1. How is it possible that the entire problem is new EPA Clean Power Plan? How can they be responsible for both the current high rates and for future higher rates?
2. Should the suppliers of basic necessities have the option of paying obscenely high salaries to their top executives – high salaries, which mean poor people as well as others, have to pay more for a basic need?
3. How is it possible that we have a law in Florida – the sunshine state – prohibiting the use of solar energy? Who does this benefit other than the suppliers of fuel to the energy companies?
4. How much education should one need to make sense out of a monthly utility bill.
Of course, it is possible that I am missing something obvious. Perhaps we, as a country cannot afford clean energy? Perhaps there are people who need what seems to this simple man as obscene salaries to live a decent life. Perhaps it does not matter if there are people who cannot afford basic utilities? It is, after all, Florida. If everyone would just go naked, bathe in the oceans or rivers, and cook on open fires we could just do away with utility companies.
Perhaps as a professional counselor I should have been breaking down my bill so that it reflects my various costs. I could list the cost of paper and other supplies, the time I spend on the Internet or other ways of researching various health issues, the food it takes to supply energy to talk to clients, equipment, and other expenses separately. Then I could add a surcharge for the time and money I spent analyzing the cost of various items, which would, of course, be in addition to the basic counseling fee. Of course the fact that this would make people crazy and thus force them to return to counseling would be beside the point!
While I deeply appreciate those community members such as Mr. Lopez who take the time to attempt to explain to my wee brain why we cannot afford clean energy, I am going to have to admit that I feel crazier after trying to make sense out of what he is saying. Perhaps I am just not capable of understanding why we should change the clean energy policies instead of challenging the manner in which utility companies do business.
Perhaps I am the only one who gets so easily confused or who feels that something is terribly wrong when we cannot find a way to make clean, affordable energy available to all of us. Perhaps I am the only one who does not understand why we need to pay such high salaries/compensation to those very important executives. Perhaps I also do not understand why only one of the five top executives of Duke is a woman. I am sure that is just accidental.
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