Utilities are using “accounting orders” that often amount to rate increases for their customers in order to maintain their bottom lines.
“At least 35 states either have granted utilities these writs or are poised to do so. The accounting orders encompass a broad range of costs associated with COVID-19 — but, primarily, the rising “bad debt” associated with unemployed customers who cannot pay their bills. An accounting order stands as a regulator's pinky swear that a utility's other customers, not its shareholders, will pick up that tab.”
“Electric and gas utilities' fortunes should be tied to the wider economy. Shuttered office buildings and small businesses mean fewer kilowatt-hours sold, and mass unemployment leaves ratepayers unable to pay what they owe to the power company. Yet, increasingly, utilities' returns are divorced from the rest of the economy. That is because government regulation of these monopolies — often imagined as protecting consumers — often does more to keep intact utilities' bottom line. Indeed, in the midst of COVID-19, a low-key bailout of these companies already has begun and, unfortunately for utility ratepayers, it's happening on their dime.”
