PG E and Me

pstrongA Low Income Woman Plays the Energy Game/strong/p pDIV align="left" TABLE cellpadding="5"TR VALIGN="TOP"TDIMG SRC= "../sites/default/files/arch_img/416/photo_1_supplement.jpg" //td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TD/td/trTR VALIGN="TOP"TDTR VALIGN="TOP"TD pby Carol Harvey/ PoorNewsNetwork/p pYesterday, I called PGE for the 11th time this year to arrange for a late payment. I talked to no fewer than three supervisors. All were abusive. All castigated me for having late payments, though I explained that I have to juggle my paltry income and outgo VERY carefully. No sympathy there!/p pbPGE SUPERVISOR:/b Do you realize that you have had ELEVEN late payments this year?/p pbME: /b Yes, I am a very good customer. I have a seven-year history of always paying my bill. I don't make very much money. I have to plan my payments around my pay dates, and sometimes the pay dates come after my payment due dates. This became especially true after PGE raised their rates 150%, and I got hit by a rental pass-through that hiked my rent up by $35.00 more a month./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b You told the other rep that you were going to mail the $51.02. She noted on your account, 'Per your original promise to pay,' you were supposed to pay on July 9th. You did not keep it. /p pbME: /b I didn't promise to pay it on the 9th. That was your pre-set PGE due date. I actually called on the 7th, two days in advance of the 9th, to ask for an extension because I knew that I would not get paid until the 11th. /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b What the computer shows me is that basically, you made an arrangement on the 25th to pay $52.02, and $51.02 on July the 9th, for a Past Due total of $103.04. /p pbME: /b I acted in good faith to pay this bill by calling in advance of that due date. I knew that I couldn't make it, so I called for an extension. Your rep said that she would give me an extension and I should call back on Friday. I remember the date because we kidded that it was Friday the 13th (of July), my "lucky" day./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Looking at what the rep noted on the account: You had called way back in June. She said she gave an arrangement to pay $52.02 on the 25th, and ..../p pbME: /b We disagree about that happened. We are going around in circles. What I would like to do is get you your money... /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Okay, so.../p pbME: /b And the second thing I would like to do is to have some guarantee that my service will stay turned on./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b You will get a 48 hour notice on July 25. /p pbME: /b Both other supervisors neglected to give me this vital piece of data. It would have helped me a lot to know that I will get a notice in time to pay my bill before you shut me down.. /p p...Give me a minute to write this down. I am under severe duress because I'm not making enough money and I'm doing fancy footwork to adjust for that. I have a seven-year long record of conscientiously paying you. You always get your money from me./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b We get our money, but then, too, looking at your account, within one year you have received eleven notices. So, yes, you are paying your bill, but you're not paying your bill on time. /p pbME: /b So, sue me because I don't make a lot of money. This is insulting to me. /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Well, then..../p pbME: /b PGE raised their rates way above what people can pay. That is what happened to me. I don't need to be abused for that. /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Wait a minute. PGE raised our rates because we were still paying half of your bill here./p pbME: /b What?!/p pbSUPERVISOR: /b PGE raised their rates because... /p pbME: /b What are you talking about?!/p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Hold on. I'll tell you./p pbME: /b Are you saying that you're giving me charity? /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b No, I'm not giving you charity... /p pbME: /b What on earth are you trying to....? /p pbPGE SUPERVISOR: /b Well, PGE has been carrying you for years. That's why the rates went up./p pbME: /b You mean you've been giving me charity all this time?/p pbPGE SUPERVISOR: /b PGE has been undercharging people for years. /p pIf you listen, I will tell you exactly what I am trying to say."Basically, the reason why PGE raised its rates is because in the last five years, PGE's rates were frozen. We were charging customers 11 cents, and it was costing... /p pbME: /b NONSENSE! Your rates went up because of the alleged power crisis in California. I DO read the papers./p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Well, then you are not reading the news correctly, because it's telling you that PGE's rates were frozen for the last five years. /p pbME: /b What!!? (Is she actually counseling me on how to read the news?!) /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b And it was costing PGE 17 cents per kilowatt-hour, and we were only charging you 11 cents. So, PGE was absorbing 6 cents per kilowatt-hour of your bill each month./p pbME: /b Are you talking about me personally? /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b No. I am talking about all PGE electric customers. (Painting all of YOU with the same ugly brush.)/p pbME: /b Okay. Look. I want to be able to pay you your money. I do not accept being verbally flagellated because I don't make a lot of money. /p pbSUPERVISOR: /b Now, now./p pbME: /b These silly verbal power plays are really turning ME off. Pun intended./p pAnd I hung up./p pSighing philosophically, I ruminated upon the fact that this sort of abusive conversation has been going on for centuries between THE POOR (like myself) and THE ENTITLED (management, supervisors, landlords, usurers and their ilk). In silent movies of the Depression, the landlord commands, "You must pay the rent!" The maiden cries, "I can't pay the rent!" Her suitor rides in saying, "I'll pay the rent!" She bats her helpless eyelashes and proclaims, "MY HERO!" /p pSince I am over 55, I think next time I will cry poverty, boo hoo pathetically, and play my "Elder Card."/p pNot satisfied by the verbal abuse of this PGE Red Queen, I called back a few days later and talked to another supervisor. By then I had cooled off, and decided to be more objective and circumspect in my approach. I realized that, despite her power posturing, the Supervisor had been trying to give me actual information. I decided to research what she had "shared." /p pSince Red Queen had informed me that "Five Years ago PGE froze the rates," I asked: "Who froze the rates and why?"/p pThis new guy, a mild mannered, buttoned-down bureaucratic type, I will call the "White Knight" in this game of power chess. White Knight explained that five years ago, when "we went into Deregulation," the California Public Utility Commission ordered PGE to freeze their rates. These rates were to be "unfrozen" in the year 2002. /p pApparently, the CPUC and Courts had determined that PGE was a Monopoly. PGE was forbidden to maintain any of its own power plants in California. To foster competition, they were forced to buy their power from other states. (As a result of this current debacle, they are now being allowed to build eight new power plants, two of which will be online soon.) /p pThe Red Queen had said that the rates were "unfrozen" this year. The White Knight, whose power style was to be as smooth and cooperative as possible, said that this was inaccurate. /p pHe said that competition was basically driving PGE out of business and putting them into bankruptcy because the CPUC had forbidden PGE to raise their rates. To ease that problem, a 1-cent per kilowatt-hour surcharge was put in place on January 1, 2001. (Apparently, this is not to be construed as being the same as "unfreezing rates".) /p pThe new surcharge still did not solve the problem, so on June 1, 2001 an additional surcharge was instituted. This new add-on surcharge was built on a 5-tier system based on geographical area, penalizing high users of energy in step-up fashion. It was to function as a disincentive to high-energy use. /p p"It has worked so well," said the White Knight, "and customers have been so careful about their energy usage that in July 2001, PGE actually has a surplus which they are selling to other states." /p pI asked this supervisor about the rumor I heard that there were meltdown conditions in the nuclear plant at San Onofre near San Clemente that triggered the energy shortage in California. He said he had not heard about that, and it was part of Southern California Edison's system, not PGE. /p pThe White Knight looked at his computer, and gently informed me that my rates had gone up because of my high usage of energy. I said my usage had not changed in seven years. It turns out what has ACTUALLY raised my rates is the new 5-tier step-up usage system instituted on June 1 which is based on where one lives./p pI live in pricey Pacific Heights, so according to their 5-tier grid system, my usage in July is suddenly considered high where before June 1, it was not. It may be that they know that people who live in Pacific Heights make, on the average, a lot more money than the rest of the world (The Getty Mansion and Melvin Bell's former estate are 3 blocks away, and Larry Ellison lives up here) and, for that reason, these residents can handle higher. I guess my brilliance in finding a low-rent studio apartment in a high-rent district, and living on a below-subsistence level income is a piece of fancy footwork that shall not go unpunished./p pThe big news in MY life is that I am paying $35 a month more for rent suddenly, and a helluva lot more for power./p pMy next research phone call to PGE will focus on why there is an energy shortage across the country at the very moment PGE is going into bankruptcy in California. Why these two conditions intersect just now triggers all my internal conspiracy theory alarms. In a city like San Francisco, where Willie Brown has said publicly that people who make under $50,000 shouldn't live here, sudden jumps in utility rates and rents seem to make the rich much richer while driving the poor deeper into debt and out of the city entirely.br / /p/td/tr/td/tr/table/div/p