Another Hugo Chavez-Style Idea On Electricity Rates From California's One-Party Regime

Authored by Monica Showalter via AmericanThinker.com,

Cash-strapped California has proposed to set electricity rates based on one's income, not one's consumption.

What could go wrong?

According to San Diego's right-leaning county supervisor, Jim Desmond:

Earlier today, I had the opportunity to participate in the California Public Utilities Commission public meeting regarding the proposed new fixed-rate electricity plan. This proposal has sparked significant concerns, particularly for the residents of San Diego. If you're… pic.twitter.com/hWNfbWgXBO

— Supervisor Jim Desmond (@jim_desmond) November 7, 2023

His tweet begins: 

Earlier today, I had the opportunity to participate in the California Public Utilities Commission public meeting regarding the proposed new fixed-rate electricity plan.

This proposal has sparked significant concerns, particularly for the residents of San Diego.

If you're unfamiliar with this plan, let me provide a breakdown of its essential components and the potential implications it holds for our community.

The proposed fixed-rate bill fundamentally operates on an income-based charging model, where the more one earns, the higher the flat-rate electricity charges.

This scheme would impose fixed monthly charges based on your income before a single kilowatt-hour is used.

Here's a breakdown of what this could mean for San Diegans:

• *Households earning between $28,000 to $69,000 would face a monthly charge of $34.

• *Those with incomes ranging from $69,000 to $180,000 would see a monthly charge of $73.

• *Households earning above $180,000 would encounter a monthly charge of $128.

Median-income households in San Diego would end up paying $876 annually for electricity, irrespective of their actual consumption.

It's also ridiculous that individuals who have invested in residential solar won't be exempt from these fixed charges.

So if you've been foolish enough to invest in solar energy as the state encouraged you to do in the name of saving the planet, hoping that $7,000 investment in the roof plates you shelled out for would eventually pay for itself through lower electricity rates, well, too bad about you.

The danger here is that California is more likely than ever to see electricity shortages, given that the cost incentive to use less will be gone with this new proposed policy. People will just leave the power on, given that there is no difference in the rate for doing so.

With that kind of incentive to overconsume, from the state with the most green mandates and highest electricity costs in the nation, you can be there won't be electricity when it's going to be needed. The coming heat waves, wild fires, and cold waves are going to be something else.

This is one of the most Hugo Chavez-style ideas ever proposed in this economically mismanaged state.

Back when Venezuela was a recognizable country in 2007, Hugo decided to expropriate all the electricity companies, public and private, in the name of achieving socialism and "equity," and then turning their management over to ignorant Cuban government operatives whose only experience with electricity was in applying electrical shocks to dissidents.

By 2010, Chavez had a full-blown "electricity emergency" on his hands, with artificially deflated costs to special interest groups and overconsumption the inevitable result. Not surprisingly, electricity rationing was the next step, with Chavez blaming the weather.

According to Reuters

CARACAS (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez inaugurated a folksy new radio talk-show on Monday by declaring an “electricity emergency” in oil-rich Venezuela.

Despite its huge crude reserves, the South American OPEC member relies on hydro-electricity for 70 percent of its power needs, and a drought has hit supply since late 2009.

“We are ready to decree the electricity emergency, because it really is an emergency,” Chavez said in the first edition of a show on state radio air waves called “Suddenly Chavez.”

With electricity cuts weighing on Chavez’s popularity ahead of important legislative elections in September, the government blames the shortages on the drought and soaring demand during five years of economic growth until 2008.

 That's socialism in action and anyone who thinks it can't happen here is delusional -- it already is happening here. Why anyone would want to imitate that Venezuelan model, after what happened there, is the only mystery.

The problem with this scheme is not only the inevitable supply crunch, but the invasion of privacy and erosion of human freedoms, with the state accessing tax records and spying on citizens to set rates. There will be a load of corruption to get the cheaper rates, while the residents who can't get out of them will have another reason to flee the state.

Once the hooks are in, the state will be free to impose any surcharges and rate hikes it likes, at its discretion, depending on how much money it wants to keep spending. The people who will have no sayso in the rate matter will be the taxpayers who consume electricity. That's your one-party state for you and don't think the rigging hasn't already been set in place.

What a nightmare this will be for Californians if the bat-brained idea is not stopped. Desmond recommends calling up the state's public utilities commission, which has proposed this wokester scheme, and tell them it's a no-go with the public. If it's not done and this proposal shut down, it will be a heck of a lot harder to get rid of it and restore normal citizen freedoms. Desmond provides the names and numbers to call in his tweet and he should be heeded.