CONSUMER BE DAMNED

Whatever happened to the cost of doing business? There was a time when businesses bit the bullet and absorbed the ordinary cost of doing business. Them days are gone forever. Nowadays, the consumer gets stuck with those costs. Capital improvements? Raise prices. Upgrade computers? Raise prices.

I believe most consumers would agree that it was perfectly reasonable for businesses to charge higher prices to offset the skyrocketing cost of fuel which we experienced in recent months. But now that fuel prices have fallen back down, have businesses lowered prices accordingly? I don't think so.

When it comes to screwing the consumer, CenterPoint Energy takes the prize. CenterPoint, a spin-off from electric utility giant Reliant Energy, is the electric transmission provider for the greater Houston area. (It is also the gas company for part of the region.) CenterPoint is going to replace the traditional spinning dial electric meters with digital meters for all homeowners and businesses in the region.

The so-called "smart meters" can be read and controlled remotely from a central information center. For the privilege of letting CenterPoint operate more efficiciently without having to employ meter readers, electric consumers are going to have to pay a $3.24 monthly surcharge for two years and then $3.05 for the next ten years. Each of the 2.2 million customers served by CenterPoint will have paid a total of $443.76 in surcharges by the end of the 12 year period.

Lets see, $443.76 x 2,200,000 = $976,272,000. CenterPoint says the new system will cost $640 million, with the balance of the $976.3 million used to pay for the financing costs. The surcharges will be added on to the customer bills of Reliant Energy, TXU Energy and the other electric power companies competing for business in the greater Houston area and will be billed in addition to the $3.88 monthly fee CenterPoint already charges.

Once the new meters have been installed, CenterPoint's cost of doing business will have been reduced and a whole bunch of meter readers will become unemployed, with a good number of them having to go on welfare. But instead of passing their savings on to the consumers, CenterPoint is doing just the opposite. The consumer be damned!