patrick.net

The City of Palo Alto is proud to offer residents and businesses a full suite of City-owned and operated utility services including electricity, natural gas, water, sanitary sewer, and commercial fiber optic services.
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/Departments/Utilities
You are on the, I kid you not, GULP plan.
The proposed changes to the Gas Utility Long-term Plan (GULP) Objectives, Strategies and Implementation Plan will align GULP to the Council direction to discontinue the gas laddered purchasing strategy for pool customers and implement gas supply rates that change every month based on the market price of gas.
https://www.cityofpaloalto.org/files/assets/public/utilities/rates-schedules-for-utilities/4663-final-staff-report-id-2552_gas-utility-long-term-plan-revisions.pdf

Onvacation says

I think there is a conspiracy going on between our LG fridge and washer. I hear them talking in code.

It's probably Navajo codespeak. I forgot, the bluetooth and internet enable Roomba vacuum thing is also spying. The Fire tablet is in there. I guess the PG&E stuff outside is spying, and may be a 5G hub for irradiating us. We're fucking surrounded.

Hugh_Mongous says

POST YOUR DOUBLED PG&E BILLS, FELLAS!!!

ANYBODY?! BUELLER!!!

So deboonked.

my ca friends seen theirs double and triple too.

RWSGFY says

So deboonked.

@RWSGFY You're kidding, right? Not deboonked, but even more real that I first thought:

Patrick says

400% surge in January

I noticed on my surprise power bill that I've been changed to a "100% renewable" plan of some kind for electric at least. I didn't ask for that, but it seems I wasn't paying attention:

https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/customer-service/other-services/alternative-energy-providers/community-choice-aggregation/faq.page

Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) frequently asked questions

How are customers enrolled in a CCA Program?
Once a city or county implements or joins a CCA program, state law requires that residential customers within a CCA member's jurisdictions be enrolled in CCA service unless they choose to opt out. In some instances, a CCA may choose to phase-in enrollment in its program. As part of the CCA notification process, customers will receive at least two notices during a 60-day period prior to CCA service commencement and at least two additional notices during a 60-day period after CCA service commencement. These notices will inform the customer how to opt out of the program if he or she chooses to do so. Once a CCA completes its enrollment process, all new customers establishing service in that area will be enrolled in CCA service unless they opt out.

Are any customers exempt from automatic enrollment in a CCA program?
All PG&E residential customers in a CCA program’s service area automatically become customers of that CCA program (which may occur in phases) unless they choose to opt out of the CCA program.

https://pgesupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360054818291-How-do-I-opt-in-or-out-of-Community-Choice-Aggregation-CCA-

How do I opt in or out of Community Choice Aggregation (CCA)?
If a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) is available in your area, you will be automatically enrolled as a customer of the CCA when you sign up for electric service. If you wish to opt out of the CCA program and have PG&E buy and/or generate your electricity, you must submit an opt-out request directly to the CCA.

Visit Community Choice Aggregation for more information including a list of CCAs in the PG&E service territory.

Haven't figured out yet if my failure to opt out is costing me money or not. Personally, I would like to maximize the CO2 I'm putting into the atmosphere so that we all have a better future with healthy plants:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/uhq557vrnww0ala/PositiveImpactOfCO2ForLife.pdf?dl=0

Patrick says

RWSGFY says

So deboonked.

RWSGFY You're kidding, right? Not deboonked, but even more real that I first thought:

Patrick says

400% surge in January

Where? Show the same bill comparison from your PG&E account as Hugh Mongous posted above.

If one argues that gas bills have doubled across the board (w/o change in consumption pattern) this should be true for every account, not one restaurant somewhere. Simple logic, nothing more.

Look into your own bill and see if it doubled since December.

Our December bill went up $26 from last December. Cold year.

US natgas:



EU natgas (different units of measure):



Stick a fork into WE'LL ALL FREEZE WITHOUT PRECIOUS RUSSIA hysterionics, will ya?

My December bill doubled since last year, and we used 20 less therms than this time last year.

The price gouging is real.
$245 to $442

https://notthebee.com/article/why-yes-england-was-the-birthplace-of-modern-political-rights-in-the-west-why-do-you-ask

England is gonna fine citizens for using wood-burning stoves. Man am I glad we fought that Revolution.

The topic of PGE bill could be the most posted topic of the year on NextDoor App

The rate increase is out of this world

Yes, my wife is on NextDoor and says there is a lot of outrage there about it.

Remember, you are the carbon they want to reduce!

Shaman says

My December bill doubled since last year, and we used 20 less therms than this time last year.

The price gouging is real.
$245 to $442

$442 for natgas only?

Electric didn't change much for me, it was mostly gas.

Rockefellers get their pound of fuel flesh from their political puppets. Blow up Nordstream Pipeline, check, have Biden Actor Puppet cancel pipeline to cheap Canadian gas, check, double domestic gas prices, check.

Eric Holder says

Shaman says

My December bill doubled since last year, and we used 20 less therms than this time last year.

The price gouging is real.
$245 to $442

$442 for natgas only?

Yeah, that seems steep. We had a really cold December and $225 was my gas bill in IL. That makes zero sense if you're out in CA. You'd have to have a 4k sq. ft. house or have 6 kids. January was $181 here. You CA boys might be getting raped.

It’s the commodity cost that went sky high. Average for December to January was $3.25/therm gas commodity alone. That is subject to market forces, and the market went stupid this year.

Yea my bill for natural gas only was $442. I have three kids, we keep the house at 72° and it’s a California house with no insulation between the drywall and the stucco. The house is two story, right at 2000 sqf, with five bedrooms. Everyone takes showers, my teens might take overly long ones ugh. We use the oven-range almost every day. And our dryer is gas as well. So is the hot tub, but we didn’t run that. Up until this year, gas was a deal for all that energy use. Now the rates have at least doubled, and of course they add lots of taxes to the bill.

I suspect that this is associated with the Democrat push to “ban gas stoves.” They know they can’t just ban them, nobody would comply! So they have chosen to have the public utilities enter into ruinous contracts with suppliers at ridiculous rates and then pass those rates on to the consumers.

This is designed to make gas more expensive than electric, pushing people towards upgrading their appliances to electric.

It’s working. the oven is the last appliance we have to get upgraded. It’s a 1993 GE unit and it works fairly well for its age. Maybe we get an electric replacement? Idk. I feel like I could be chasing a mirage here.

Yes, I also think recent utility bill hikes are a horribly misguided attack on relatively clean and abundant natural gas.

At some point it will be worth it to physically ship propane tanks from places with lower prices. Maybe it is already.

ForcedTQ says

It’s the commodity cost that went sky high. Average for December to January was $3.25/therm gas commodity alone. That is subject to market forces, and the market went stupid this year.

Why $442 though in CA? That's insane unless it's a large house. We had -1ºF HIGHS for days in December. $225 for December. Less for January. Three boys, showers/hot water. We heat the house at 67ºF and drop it to 60ºF 12am-4am. would be the biggest difference. For IL we get good passive solar heating from the south. That just seems insane from a cold weather perspective.

Add on. Does it get lower than 55ºF during the day? There's no need to turn on the heat. Wear layers and blankets. With sunlight, windows closed I can't imagine the inside of a home getting less than 55ºF. Definitely don't have to worry about pipes freezing. I don't think I'd use gas or electric heat out in CA unless in the mountains.

@WookieMan Lately it's been quite cold in the SF Bay Area. Could really use some of that "global warming".

By cold, I mean that overnight it can dip below freezing, and sometimes the high is only 50 F outside. Typical high lately is about 60 F. (Dunno how you type the degree symbol.)

We leave the heat off at night and usually turn it on only in the morning and in the evening. In the middle of the day it's about 60 inside the house lately.

Shaman says

California house with no insulation between the drywall and the stucco

We have the same problem. The house is essentially a tent made of wood.

I guess one problem with renting is that we're not too motivated to pay to insulate it very well. Not till recently anyway.

WookieMan says

You CA boys might be getting raped.

Small 3 bedroom two bath 1200sqft with little insulation. Our January total bill was $280.29.
Horribly cold this year. It has got down to the low 30's several times already

$485 last month with $171 in gas.
$685 this month with $330 in gas. This is record for us compared to all previous years.

You guys are talking 30ºF lows though.... I'm talking -1ºF for a HIGH for 3-4 days. Then 20-30ºF for HIGHS the rest of the month. You are being raped by the gas company. It's not even a conversation. I'm not trying to argue, just pointing out you're getting fucked royally.

My furnace during these times runs 20 hours a day. 5 humans taking showers, laundry, dishes, all powered by gas essentially. Never have I reached $250/mo and we sure as shit get waaaaaay colder than CA outside of mountains.

Fuel rape in California has always been a thing. When Enron was manipulating the market, they had traders who celebrated how much they were sticking it to California because they hated it so much. They had recordings of their phone exchanges.

That's true. This shit has happened before, with Enron fucking California.

Same corruption, same fucking the public for private profit.

I remember bills like this from that time, about 1998 I think.

I only noticed because I had the highest natural gas usage in the past 12 months this bill. Made sense once my wife told me the water heater had a pretty good leak.

I noticed that the "Tier 1" cost was $2.34/therm in December but $2.67/therm in January. There are also a small amount of add-on fees. I don't know what Tier 2 cost is, because I didn't hit it. That puts California well behind Hawaii (no pipelines) but more costly than any other state in the union, I think.

The bigger problem for my shack is no insulation in the walls and very little insulation in the attic. I permanently closed off my fireplace chimney years ago because the flue vent let quite a cold draft through. Seasonally, I block off my whole house fan. 1555 square foot house, but as a single story it's quite a lot of surface area. Of course the floor isn't insulated – not even carpeted.

65 degree temperature setting for 7:30 AM until 10:00 PM and 57 degrees otherwise. Gas bill is about $120/month in the winter and less than $10/month in the summer (hot water heater only).

According to PG&E December 2021 averaged 52 degrees but December 2022 was 48 degrees. I used 10% more gas this past December and it also cost 20% more per unit.

Tier 2 rate went up 9% (3.06/2.80)
Tier 1 rate went up 14% (2.67/2.34)
My Dec, Jan gas usage went up 40% more compare to last year months and the bill went up to $200!
Thanks for Biden inflation.

So far no proof 400% increase. Not even doubling. Seems to follow general inflation trend and weather pattern.

WookieMan says

Why $442 though in CA?

My father had a building supply company when I was a kid.

Houses in California are built like shit. No insulation, single pained windows, they don't give a damned if it's air tight.

A million dollar house here is a shithole compared to a $100,000 house where I grew up.

Patrick says

By cold, I mean that overnight it can dip below freezing, and sometimes the high is only 50 F outside. Typical high lately is about 60 F. (Dunno how you type the degree symbol.)

Option 0 (zero) on my computer. Option key is "key" for weird shit. √ Ω ø ƒ ∆ I'm losing my half assed tech capabilities as I don't mess around with any of it anymore. But option anything comes up with some symbol. I think most OS's allow to customize it as well if you use a symbol frequently.

richwicks says

Houses in California are built like shit. No insulation, single pained windows, they don't give a damned if it's air tight.

That still seems high for the air temp is all. I've stayed in a hipster Palm Spring hotel in the past. It was just plywood and the studs. No insulation. Was January so it got down to 30ºf at night. I was coming from a cold climate, so that temp didn't move me. Cannot remember how often the split duct system kicked in, but was never cold and was generally naked in the room (I know TMI) with it just being the wife and I.

I got my best haircut ever on that trip. Hair Cuttery. The hispanic woman nailed what my hair should look like (at the time). Haven't been able to repeat it. Pisses me off. I like Palm Springs but it is gay as can be. Pisses me off because I like the MCM architecture and the golf. I don't need to see obvious gays and hidden gay bars everywhere.

WookieMan says

Option 0 (zero) on my computer.

Yup, that's it: º

Wow, pretty much every letter prints some symbol when you hold option down on a Mac:

å∫ç∂´ƒ©˙ˆ∆˚¬µ˜øπœ®ß†¨√∑≈¥Ωº¡™£¢∞§¶•ªº

I am using a Windows 11 computer, so I guess I have to write 98.6 degrees instead of 98.6°