Huval says the bill increases are also attributable to record months of heat in July, August and September ' a problem exacerbated by low levels of rainfall. "Rob Perillo told me those three months in 2005 are the hottest on record ' that means the hottest in 112 years," says Huval.
With natural gas prices falling to about $10 per thousand cubic feet in November, down from a yearly high of $14.68 at one point in October, utility customers should get some relief.
Lower bills should be arriving in LUS customers' mailboxes any day now, Huval says. "With the first two of our four new generating units now in service, we are in a position to reduce our fuel costs to our customers significantly." He adds that the fuel component is dropping from 6.4 cents to 5.4 cents per kilowatt-hour. The new units are more fuel efficient, and new technology allows them to be turned off within minutes when usage is down, so LUS will be able to increase its coal utilization to 70 percent. "What that means is that with these new units, we are now relying on natural gas for only 30 percent of our total generation needs," he says.
LUS' effort follows a national trend by utility companies to wean themselves from natural gas-fired generation.
However, other customers in the state, served by utility systems more dependent on natural gas, were hit much harder in recent months. Consumer outcry led the Louisiana Public Service Commission to order audits of Cleco's and Entergy's gas purchases through October of this year in an effort to determine if they bought gas at the cheapest available rates. "In October 2005, Entergy and Cleco's residential electric charges were about 23 percent and 18 percent higher than LUS' respectively," Huval says.
Manuel Lam, an energy analyst with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, says about 37 percent of the Gulf of Mexico's natural gas production is still shut in but should be back on line soon. With natural gas storage climbing and November weather unusually warm, he expects prices for the rest of the year to settle in the $10 to $11 range.
But, says Lam, it's still anybody's guess what kind of weather awaits in the winter months ahead.
JUNE 19 Former Saint Steve Gleason, who is paralyzed by ALS, released a statement Tuesday in response to the Atlanta radio station's skit making fun of him and the disease, this Picayune post reports. What did he say? He said he'd accepted the apology of the DJs who did it, notes that at least the incident has got people talking about ALS, and asks anyone who is burning to take action about it to do so -- by helping him fight ALS.
JUNE 19 Blogger Ian McGibboney takes a look at the Gleason incident in this post. He makes a good argument about the difference between having free speech and being free from consequences for your speech (which none of us is). He also admits that many of us got upset before we listened to the skit -- but lets us know that the reality is far worse than we can imagine. It was the incredibly bad judgment, even more than the actual speech, that probably got those DJs fired, he opines.
JUNE 19 Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake writes about Sen. Guillory's switch to the GOP in this post. He writes what most political watchers in Louisiana know: Guillory was a Republican before he decided to run for the senate seat in a mostly-D St. Landry district, and has switched back now that he plans to run for Lt. Gov. in a mostly-R state. But how come Blake missed Guillory's appearance on a TLC pageant show? Now that is a video we'd like to see. (Again).
JUNE 19 Here's another Washington Post blog post about a Louisiana politician, and it's just plain scathing. Ezra Klein says Jindal's Politico post was "insulting" to the intelligence of voters, and adds that Jindal is personifying the "stupid" he's railed against, by being an "elite" who convinces GOP activists of "things that aren't true." Me-ow.
JUNE 19 Here's Gov. Jindal's post in Politico, in which he asks the GOP to get over losing to Obama (again) and stop "the bedwetting." (Uh, what?) He gives his Republican buddies what is probably a nerd's idea of a coach's motivational talk, which starts with a list of accomplishments that they can't seem to exploit and ending with an absurd description of liberals that sounds like a character treatment for a Fox "News" movie scripted by Gordon Liddy. Sure, he's preaching to the choir, but even the choir's not this gullible.
JUNE 19 Lamar Parmentel read Gov. Jindal's post on Politico, but thinks it was so dumb it probably was published in the wrong paper. This post by Lamar on the Daily Kingfish opines that possibly Jindal's post was destined for the Onion -- because the governor couldn't possibly be serious here. If you listen closely, you can hear the staff of the Kingfish giggling.
JUNE 19 Blogger Robert Mann posts from Turkey, a country he has visited several times in the past few years. Mann gives an interesting overview of the current political and societal climate of the country, which -- if you're living under a rock and don't know -- is experiencing protests and turmoil these days. Mann promises to post as much as he can during his trip, which should be fascinating reading.
JUNE 19 Blogger CB Forgotston says the legislature is keeping the vicious cycle going with its funding of new buildings for the community college/technical college system. Universities across the state need maintenance and improvement on existing buildings, and the solution is to build new buildings at other schools? By the time the bonds are paid off, those buildings will be falling down, too, CB says.
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