A Surcharge For Carbon?

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today will propose a monthly carbon surcharge for Department of Water and Power customers to help the city switch from coal to renewable energy.Villaraigosa did not specify the amount he has in mind, but Deputy Mayor Jay Carson told the Los Angeles Times 55 percent of DWP customers -- those who use the smallest amount of power -- would see their bills go up $2 a month..... "The increase will incentivize stakeholders to use alternative energy and therefore reduce Los Angeles' dependence on fossil fuels," it added. The proposal comes after a study by PA Consulting revealed the current surcharge -- the Energy Cost Adjustment Factor -- is not bringing in enough money to help Villaraigosa realize his goal of ending the city's reliance on coal by 2020..... If the proposal is adopted, the surcharge would end up being 7.79 cents per kWh. That would result in the average residential customer's monthly payments increasing $11 to $14 over the course of a year under the current rate structure -- a 16-21 percent hike in the current average bill....The average low income customer's monthly payments would go up $7 to $9 over a year, a 20-27 percent increase.

More likely, he and his spinmeisters are working up a strategy to sell the carbon surcharge to a city that already vetoed the essence of his plan. However, it will take more than a few days to develop a campaign that doesn't evoke memories of Measure B - last year's solar power initiative that failed because voters didn't buy the cost estimates. He's going to need some fancy figures indeed to explain why Angelenos must pay higher rates after the city has raided hundreds of millions of dollars from DWP coffers to shore up its general fund. After all, the utility could have used that revenue to switch to solar and wind power without putting the burden on ratepayers.