Good News Louisiana! Lower Rural Electric Bills On the Way
Here we are, smack dab in the middle of air conditioning season! I don't know about your electric bill, but mine looks higher than the front row at a Snoop Dogg concert. For reference:
So when I saw that the Louisiana Public Service Commission was predicting lower electric bills by this time next year for more than a million of our state's residents - I jumped out of the tent I've got set up in my living room with a Cowboy Cooler inside to bring the temperature in my immediate area (the tent) to a cool 77 degrees!
Unfortunately, the logical part of my brain kicked in to remind me that more than 4 and 1/2 million people currently live in the Sportsman's Paradise. By my calculations, that means roughly 3 million people won't be seeing smaller electric bills! What gives?
That means that next summer (just like this summer) unless you want to take out a 2nd (3rd?) mortgage on your home so you can fund your house-cooling endeavors - this is what your going to look like:
So, why are roughly three quarters of Louisiana residents missing out on the savings? Simply because they live in town. According to KTBS, the lower energy bills are slated for rural residents of the Bayou State.
Right now, 9 electric co-operatives in the state are negotiating contracts that seem to be producing some encouraging results (for country folks). The early word out of these negotiations is that rural electric bills could fall as much as 30%! That means a bill that is currently ringing in at $200 would be $140 next year! That's for the same amount of cold air your air conditioner is pumping out right now!
The good news for city dwellers is this: You still have a year to find a house out in the woods if you want to run your thermostat down to those little bitty numbers without breaking the bank.