In December,
unless the Dallas City Council to go
along with a 24 percent increase in local
electricity rates to customers in Dallas,
the Park Cities and Cockrell Hill,
after six days of public hearings and
months of investigation, the Dallas City
staff today released a report to the
council endorsing an average 12 percent
rate hike, half the increase in L
wanted.
Under the city's plan, residential
customers would see an almost 14 percent
increase in their electric bills, and a
monthly home heating or cooling bill of
fifty dollars would jump to almost fifty
seven dollars.
Commercial and industrial customers would
see various increases in their payments
to now, and all of those increases
would be about half the amount the power
company had hoped for despite the
proposed rate reduction.
Tom James, director of public utilities,
says a rate hike is necessary.
The cost of
providing electricity has
increased.
And secondly, there
is a need to shift
out of natural gas as the sole
source of our primary fuel
for a generation of electricity into an
alternate fuel.
And a large part
of that
cost has to be borne
by current ratepayers.
That's reflected in the construction
work in progress, which is included in
the calculation.
The rate hike is by no means final.
The rate hike request will no doubt end
up in Austin before the Public Utility
Commission and perhaps even go to the
courts before a decision is made.
Pat Couch, The Texas News.