I’m not kidding.
While I sometimes do not agree with the way we use our Armed Forces troops, I support the troops. Similarly, I’m whole-heartedly appreciative of and grateful to the workers of Appalachian Power who’ve had a hell of a couple of weeks getting (most of us) back up and running after the Derecho and subsequent storms, however. . .
HOWEVER.
Since corporations are people (and possibly boards, commissions, etc. etc., are too) and today is Bastille Day, it’s time for guillotines.
Appalachian Power’s customers have seen a rate increase of 50% over the past four years. That increase might be more palatable to me if the reliability of my service was not declining more and more with each rate increase. Significantly. For the month prior to the Derecho, my service went out long enough EVERY DAY to necessitate the re-setting of clocks. It’s become a routine, I return home and, starting in the kitchen, begin setting clocks. Over the course of the past four years, a routine rain storm will leave me without power overnight or for several hours during the day about once a month. Every day, several times a day, day in and day out, my power flickers. I have lost many appliances, small and not so small, to the frequent flickerings/outages resulting in power surges.
The Derecho was historic and I appreciate that. However, the U.S. Department of Energy has noted that, on average, it takes Appalachian Power four times longer to repair outages in West Virginia than the national average. On the surface of things, one would attribute the difference to our state’s terrain and rural nature. Well, Donald E. Walker, a technical analyst for the PSC looked into that factor. He noted in a report that in comparison to areas of New York with similar terrain and similar instances of power outages, the reliability factor in West Virginia was below the norm. Specifically, he said, “Other states with comparable operating conditions to those found in West Virginia reflect similar statistics found in the New York performance report,” Walker wrote. “It is therefore reasonable to expect utilities in our state to achieve the more stringent reliability index targets recommended by staff.”
However, Appalachian Power’s and the other utilities’ proposals for increasing the reliability of service in our state didn’t impress. Ken Ward, Jr. wrote:
Officials from the PSC staff and the Consumer Advocate Division are concerned that plans proposed by the industry will do little to improve the reliability of West Virginia’s electrical system.
Last month, PSC staff warned commissioners that utility proposals would simply require companies “to complete work which was neglected for the past 10 years.”
Appalachian Power is not the first utility, nor do I suspect it to be the last, to rape and pillage West Virginia. (And I don’t use those loaded words lightly.)
Verizon’s neglect of the communication system left West Virginia with sub-par telephone service and even worse broadband. Frontier bought a pig in a poke and I won’t be surprised when they throw their hands up in the air and close shop. After my hissy fit with good, old Ken, my phone service is stellar which proves it can be done (and could have been done), if more people had more hissy fits. Guillotines, I tell you.
During my 6 days without power following a storm which followed the Derecho, I had a lot of time to cogitate and bitch. I absolutely out did myself. I did not bitch about the power outage, per se, I bitched about what I was reading all over the web. I can’t prove it, so it’s anecdotal at best, but the citizenry of West Virginia in online forums, media comment sections, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites were reporting that the out-of-state electrical workers that rode in here on their white horses to help restore us our normal state of unreliability expressed surprise at how poorly the lines and the right-aways were maintained. I’m not surprised, are you? If West Virginia were anywhere near the national norm, I would have been 2 days without power, not 6.
And for this privilege, I’m paying 50% more than I was 4 years ago and 4 years ago I was paying more than I was in the four year period prior to that and on and on and on. My service continues to degrade.
Even Senator Manchin, who I really don’t like, managed to get his head out of his, ahem, long enough to speechify about how the U.S. should not be spending money on the electrical infrastructure in Afghanistan when West Virginia is falling apart at the seams. We’ll leave for another time my thoughts on what part Manchin and the rest of the coal-crazy robber baron politicians have played in the not-so-benign neglect of West Virginia’s infrastructure.
In another peachy editorial in the Charleston Gazette, I learned that last fall Appalachian Power’s parent company gave $1 million to a “social welfare organization” that denies being a lobbying organization. Take a gander:
What is it called when AEP seeks limited government for its subsidiaries? Limits on the government that enacts and enforces environmental regulations? The government that reviews and enforces workplace safety? The government that evaluates rate increase requests? The government that reviews how companies respond during power outages?
If AEP is concerned about our social welfare, is it not reasonable to expect they’d want the people of West Virginia to be up and running after a power outage at least as soon as the folks in upstate New York? They’re not concerned about our social welfare, you say? I’d say your right. And to that, I say, “Guillotines, damn it.”
And with any luck I’ll be able to post this before my power goes out again. It’s been up and down like a yo-yo today. For no apparent reason — just like all the days before the Derecho. I’m a little crazed these days. There’s been way too much life happening and it’s not going to take much for my transformer to blow. If you read or hear about some hillbilly woman with a homemade guillotine taking hostages, I’d appreciate a bail fund as the Derecho pretty much left me without much in the way of surplus funds.
So, before I could publish this, AEP came rambling up my hill to respond to my earlier service ticket. I had quite a talk with the cutie driving the truck. I told him my power woes. He assured me he’d heard it all before. He assessed the problem. The right-away needs serious work. He was dubious that a work order would ever be placed. He said, “I’m not telling you this, but you need to file a complaint with the Public Service Commission.” I told him that I routinely file complaints and to-date it’s not done one jot of good. We talked some more, he allowed as to how there were some forms and whatnot he could submit that might get them moving. Old Ken at Frontier surprised me, so maybe I’m wrong in not feeling optimistic that this will be repaired any time soon.
W. Va. Fur and Root 