'My bill is $782????' Why electricity costs have soared for some NJ customers
William Westhoven
Morristown Daily Record
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New Jersey residents have been bracing for higher electric bills since the state Board of Public Utilities approved rate hikes back in February.
Now the first bills reflecting those power rates have arrived, and homeowners are finding the change, in a word, shocking.
The base rate increases approved by the state ranged from about 3% to 9% and took effect on June 1. But that was the start of a hot, steamy month that ended up the second-warmest June in New Jersey history. And after an unusually cool June in 2023, the year-over-year comparison has been eye-opening.
"I have JCP&L and my bill is $782????" demanded one Parsippany resident on a local town page on Facebook. "Can this be right? I have an average-sized house!!!"
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Link to story.
= new reply since forum marked as read
How a small rightward shift in the average daily high temperature produces a huge increase in the frequency of very hot days:
e.g. a 2% increase in the July average daily high in a locale with a July average daily high of 85 degrees (e.g. New York City) produces a 2.44 fold increase (144% increase) in the number of 103+ degree July days.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143266574#post1
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Heat Waves - decade by decade from the 1960's on - 4 bar charts: Heat Wave Frequency, Heat Wave Duration, ...
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=3269663
Well if the accursed thing doesn't load, here it is:
https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/climate-change-indicators-heat-waves
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And then I found this article 2 weeks ago,
Why your air conditioning bill is about to soar , Washington Post, 7/12/24
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/why-your-air-conditioning-bill-is-about-to-soar/ar-BB1pRxnN
(summarizing, in my words) Air conditioning costs rise with the SQUARE of the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures. e.g. if the indoor setpoint is 75 degrees, then an increase in outdoor temperature of just 4 degrees, from 96 to 100, increases AC cost 42% !.
Plus more than half the greenhouse gas consequences (and presumably more than half of the electricity cost) comes from dehumidying, which older AC's don't do efficiently. As if that's bad enough, the inability of older AC's to reduce the humidity enough causes people to lower their thermostats to feel comfortable -- yet even more expense and more greenhouse gas emissions.
The refrigerants used in AC's also contribute to global warming
But, why allow that when we can literally drag the nation backwards by maintaining outdated ideas and industries? After all, as stated below, it is all about greed, and with a central power grid (and, depending where you are, legislation that actually punishes people for trying to get off of said grid) being the only real option, we have little choice but to p(l)ay along.
Personally, I find it ridiculous that we are still locked into such a antiquated system of energy consumption. But, as stated, when your supplier is incapable of curtailing its own insatiable greed, we end up vulnerable and weakened. But, by all means, lets keep on with the fires and pollution being proliferated by greedy sub humans who think they are better than we are solely because they have more money. As if that means anything to anyone other than a fellow greed-infused American.
(Also, you ain't seen nuthin' yet. The 'rising arrow' of our greedy desire to always get more than the last time is completely unsustainable. It will all collapse soon enough. It didn't have to happen this way, but... we are humans and we seem incapable of denying our base desires even when it means our mutual destruction.) 
