On November 10, the Benton County Public Utility District (PUD) in Southeastern Washington state presented it’s information regarding the need for an electrical consumer cost rate increase for 2010.  Residential will see a 4.6% increase and heavy industrial users such as the local large agricultural food production farmers will see 8%.

Part of the presentation included a chart showing the new resource cost estimates for various power sources without subsidy from taxpayers.  As shown in that chart here, the sources recommended for use by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council (NWPCC) have costs that are integral multipliers above the projected percentage rate increases.  So, if we continue to let the soft supplemental energies be our primary focus, we can expect significant increases in cost for less reliable energy.  Sounds like war on the poor.

In addition when questioned, the PUD commissioners had no idea or explanation of the makeup of the ‘Conservation’ element in the chart.  It is documented that conservation numbers are generally endogenous (fake) based in planning models.  However, they unanimously agreed that the NWPCC’s recommendation of avoiding 85% of new build through conservation was ridiculous.

Looks like the public has some serious learning and lobbying to do or roll over to subsistence living.