No fuel, no power, no rate hike
A LAWMAKER says CUC should be “creative” and “avoid any utility rate increase every time fuel costs go up.”
Arithmetic. Politicians. They don’t go together well.
CUC has to pay more for the fuel its power plants use to generate electricity because the price of fuel has increased. CUC pays for its fuel by collecting the Fuel Adjustment Charge or FAC.
We suspect that many voters know that 1 + 1 can only be equals 2, but many of them also believe that their elected officials can and should make 1 + 1 = 1 or, ideally, 0. What with all that official talk about “compassion” for the “suffering public” and “serving the people” and “improving their lives,” among other typical election-year nonsense — sorry — promises.
In 2005, oil and gas prices reached “historic levels,” and CUC basically cried uncle. It couldn’t afford its fuel bill. CUC’s fuel surcharge wasn’t enough, and was already wildly unpopular. Result? Recurring power outages. Governor Babauta had to declare a state of emergency disaster so he could reprogram funds for CUC. At the same time, he urged the Legislature to appropriate the funds CUC needed. Otherwise, he said, “I’m taking money from everybody else.”
Today, many lawmakers say they “have the power of the purse” — especially if there’s something in that purse. No need to be “creative” then. You don’t want voters to pay FAC then the Legislature should 1) appropriate funds to pay what the CNMI government (including CHCC) owes CUC in terms of utility bills; 2) subsidize CUC’s fuel expenses; or 3) subsidize the rate-payers’ FAC.
Where will the Legislature get the tens of millions of dollars to do all that?
In meetings?
THE House PUTC held an “emergency” meeting Wednesday with CUC “to find what is the solution to help our consumers out there.”
What followed was a Q&A with CUC which was ably represented by its new deputy executive director and other officials. It was a “one-sided” dialogue. Only one side knew what it was talking about.
To hear all these complaints about rising fuel charges is like hearing someone say, “I used to buy a can of beer for $1, now beer costs so much more, I know, but I’m still buying just one can of beer so why does it cost more?”
CUC, in any case, reminded members of the branch of government that acts on appropriation bills that the government owes CUC “tens of millions of dollars. Those funds would go to replacing equipment at our power plants that will make us more efficient…. And that will reduce the amount of energy we need to consume….”
CHCC, the CNMI’s other truly essential government entity, remains CUC’s largest delinquent customer.
Care to comment, lawmakers?
Government, alas, is always overspending because of the non-stop pandering on the part of politicians and elected officials. And they have to pander because otherwise they won’t get elected.
PSS’s MVP
WITHOUT the tens of millions of federal dollars provided to PSS each year, it is likely that many classes in the NMI would still be held in cramped classrooms without A/Cs, at schools without adequate facilities.
For the past 27 years, Tim Thornburgh was the PSS official responsible for securing and/or administering those federal grants which also benefited private schools. He has retired, effective June 30th, and was commended by PSS for his distinguished service and exemplary contributions. Indeed.
Results matter. For PSS, Tim delivered results, consistently.
We wish him well on his retirement. Perhaps now, he’ll have more time to write poems. A public servant of a poet. A poet of a public servant. What a man.
