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Show Our readers write in to express their opinions Sam & Adrien: I would like to point out inequities by the Utah Power and Light Co., that amount to discrimination against those trying to save energy. The power company asks the State Public Service Commission Commis-sion for higher rates to offset their anticipated reduction in costs. As was forseen by all the customers custo-mers the rates were granted at a high fee, which fortunately was disallowed by a court. A court reversed the decision that was granted by the board, that I think has always allowed the utilities to raise their rates, whenever and at any rate they wanted. This board was created in the beginning to protect the citizen against unjustified increases by any and all utilities serving the public. pub-lic. Public hearings are held in which anyone is allowed to speak his mind but the utility company usually wins. I wish to ask the Utah Power and Light Co., why I pay a higher rate for my electricity (especially since I was gone for two months) than my friends' who used over 600 kilowatt kilo-watt hours and my home used 391. I was charged $20 for my 391 kilowatts. A friend who used over 600 was charged only $1 more and another who used nearly 700 was charged just $3 more. I was told by the personnel in the office it was because I did not have an electric water heater or stove in my home. They stated that if I had such devices that I would be allowed a lower computing comput-ing rate. To me this is a lot of hog wash as the country is supposed to have an energy crisis. On this supposition I should be forced to pay for gasoline I do not use, thereby subsidizing those who do as they please in wasting energy. According to the latest reports a citizen over 65 years of age would only pay the higher rates after he used his first 400 units. This is for the best, but why does the utility need the rate increase at all? Is it for the purpose of building more power plants? Ones that I think will make a stink hole out of our clean air in Southeastern Utah, not for the purpose of giving us better service but for the large metropolitan areas that think it unwise to turn off power at any time. Large golf courses must be well illuminated at night, buildings must be well lighted in order to let the janitors service them and thousands of other wastes of power are evident. Should we who live in Southeastern Utah and the four corners area be forced to help subsidize? subsi-dize? If the large cities need more power why can't they burn the coal or other sources of energy in their own part of the country. Is it because it is cheaper to transport power via cables or because the clean air acts of these cities will not allow it? Sincerely, W. I). McArthur Dear Sam: You and Adrien arc well qualified and entitled to compliments for successfully success-fully hosting the Utah Press Association. I low-ever, low-ever, (in the map f the U.S.A. I doubt, if it will cause Moab to appear as much as a small pimple. Nevertheless, with the major NYC papers on .'.I I ike I wish In use space in a column of yours to register a Federal complaint. com-plaint. (Really not too unusual in this area.) This may be like trying to poke a hole in the hide of a jack-ass or elephant with a toothpick. Once upon a time, I thought that I learned that the Federal government was made up of Executive, Execu-tive, Legislative, and Judicial Ju-dicial branches, not necessarily neces-sarily in that order. Recently we have had a court convicted killer, by his own confession, appearing ap-pearing before the Congress Con-gress and TV to apparently apparent-ly re-try his case. Previously, Pre-viously, before Congress, the TV audience was permitted to hear the voice and see the hair on the back of the head of a "hood" in the process of plea bargaining. Congressmen Con-gressmen may be able and required to judge their peers, but- what has happened to the Judicial branch of our government? govern-ment? Has Congress delegated delegat-ed sufficient authority to Bureaus (who can create laws by publishing proposals pro-posals in the Federal Register) to have spare time to take on Court duties? It seems to me that there are enough problems, economic, energy, en-ergy, defense, etc. to keep our Congressmen busy earning their salaries. Thanks for popping the safety valve and allowing my steam to blow off. Sincerely Dick Unger |