Your Opinion: Electric rates, reliability lauded
Dear Editor:
As a regular reader of your publication, I’m dismayed to keep seeing these letters allegedly written by a concerned citizen continually bashing the electric company. These letters coincidentally push familiar talking points as if someone or some unhappy corporation is feeding him the lines.
As a matter of fact, Missourians should be thankful for the rates we pay (30 percent lower than the national average.) When I pay my bills each month, the electric bill is the one bill I am concerned with the least. Even with the heat of the summer, my electric bill is the cheapest bill I pay. I’m much more concerned with the higher interest rates on my student loans (thank you Congress) or the expensive bill I pay for car insurance (thank you insurance industry.)
Furthermore, when my 20-year-old air conditioner finally kicked the bucket last year, I replaced it with a more efficient unit — and the power company sent me a check for $400. With the new AC unit, my bills are even cheaper than they were before, by almost half. What other bill are we paying less for now than before? Not the cable bill. Not your credit cards. The answer is: zero. Our electricity in Missouri is about the best bargain money can buy. You can move just about anywhere else in the country and I guarantee you will pay more.
And one last thing with regard to the electric company: Amidst all of those crazy storms last spring and the heavy snows in winter, not once did the power go out. That is the most reliable service one get from the cheapest bill paid each month and you cannot beat that.
So the next time you read one of these canned letters in this paper, remind yourself when you are paying your bills each month that the power company gives you reliable service 24/7 and cheap rates year round.
Irl Scissors, Jefferson City
