Struggling With High Electric Bills? Deregulated Energy Companies Say It’s Your Own Fault

By now it’s no secret that this winter’s energy bills are forecast to rise just about everywhere.  But it is well established that if you live in a deregulated state, that increase will, unfortunately, be faster and higher. 

The most recent evidence is coming out of Massachusetts, where the basic service rate for customers of National Grid is scheduled to increase 64 percent.  That’s a steep increase for anyone, and especially for the most vulnerable such as elderly residents on fixed incomes.  But if your grandmother in New England is struggling to pay her electric bills, don’t look to the deregulation enthusiasts at retail energy marketer NRG for sympathy.  Their message: it’s her own fault.

According to NRG, things like natural gas prices, inflation, Putin’s War in Europe and electricity price spikes were all predictable events, and if you were too dense to not buy a long-term fixed price contract when prices were lower a year ago, then you have no one to blame but yourself.  Doesn’t Grandma read the Financial Times?

Generous souls that they are, NRG now tells Massachusetts regulators that they’re still more than happy to sign-up customers to long fixed-term contracts.  Switch to NRG affiliate Direct Energy, and they’ll provide you a nearly 23 cent/KWh rate for the next two years.  Go with NRG affiliate Green Mountain Energy and you’ll have to pay almost 27 cents for the next 12 months.  Choices, choices.

Unfortunately, for residents of the Commonwealth, the choice they won’t have is to pay the far lower rates offered by the regulated utilities that serve most of the country.  The Energy Information Administration has released its most recent monthly state-by-state electricity rate comparison, and in a surprise to no one, rates in the predominantly regulated regions of the Midwest, South and West, continue to beat those offered by the “choice” providers in deregulated New England.