Just the FAC
“The political class has prospered by hiding from the public the cost of the public’s appetites…. By doing so, government deepens America’s infantilization.”
— George F. Will
ACCORDING to a lawmaker, one of his constituents wants to know why the FAC is “so high,” and “when is the CPUC going to step in.”
Those questions, in a nutshell, should give us an idea why the CNMI government is always broke, especially when the local economy is down.
The Fuel Adjustment Charge or FAC pays for the oil that CUC uses to run its power plants. The FAC is set monthly and reflects the price of oil. It goes up and down depending on whether the price of oil is up or down by a certain percentage. Because of the decrease in the average international oil prices, the FAC for June will go down by 2.23 cents per kWh. The last time the FAC went up was in March, when it was $0.26469 per kWh; but next month, the rate will be lower at $0.24173 per kWh. (GPA’s website indicates that the fuel recovery charge on Guam is $0.261995.)
Without fuel, CUC can’t run its power engines and we will have no power unless we have readily available alternative sources. Someone, in any case, has to pay for the fuel that CUC needs. Right now, that someone is the consumer. Truth be told, many of us don’t really believe that the FAC is “so high.” But many of us just don’t want to pay it, period. In that case, lawmakers can introduce legislation to subsidize the FAC. But again, someone must pay for the subsidy, which is likely to cost millions of dollars. Who or what should be the funding source?
It is the CPUC, incidentally, that requires CUC to adjust the FAC rate each month.
As has been repeatedly pointed out before, the most effective way to deal with “high” utility charges is to significantly reduce utility use. If you think you’ve already cut your consumption but your utility bill is still “too high” then, of course, you must complain to your elected officials and/or CUC. But it is rare to hear consumers who don’t use many appliances complain that their utility bills are “so high.”
Raise your hand if you believe that the lawmaker mentioned earlier had the guts to explain all this to his constituent.
Good luck Mr. Benson
THINGS could be so much better if many elected officials believe, like Del Benson, that government should cut costs and allow legitimate businesses to flourish. Imagine if a majority of elected officials on Capital Hill would agree to get rid of duplicative government agencies instead of raising taxes and fees, and imposing more onerous regulations on businesses.
It would be great, moreover, if most lawmakers would wonder out loud what happened to all the well-intentioned laws that were enacted since the Commonwealth government was established in 1978. Did they accomplish their goals? If not, why not? How many have been implemented? How many have been ignored or forgotten? What are the laws that are preventing businesses to grow, create jobs and generate more revenue for the government?
For Mr. Benson, a productive legislative session occurs when not a single piece of legislation is introduced. Considering that many of today’s pending bills are usually recycled versions of ill-advised measures, he is right.
But is being right enough to win an election?
We’ll find out soon.
