production act for changes around the house, that was the only state that actually got
funding for two different IRA programs, and the money was not undone by the Trump administration.
Wow.
That's really good information.
I didn't know that.
Yeah.
And so they have a great resource where people can just, there's a get started on their button
on the focus website that I can mention, that people just, there's certain programs that
are available, and then there's like, for heat pumps and other things, they get certain
level funding for everybody, but if you're low income or for your incomes below a certain
level, there's even more funding available.
Okay.
It could pay for up to 100% of the product.
Wow.
Very good info.
Thank you.
Sure.
Okay.
And we are recording ready when you are.
As temperatures cool down with the advent of winter, not far behind, it will soon be time
to turn on the furnace.
And like gasoline and diesel prices, the cost to heat your home is expected to go up by
an average of about 8.7% for the season, according to national forecasts.
Tom content of the Citizen's Utility Board has been tracking the trend.
And thanks very much for being here.
Great to be with you.
So is this just like added to the list of the things that are costing more right now?
There is so much.
I mean, we were seeing it everywhere.
And unfortunately, we had a high heating cost winter last year, in part because of
how expensive natural gas was, but mainly because of how frigid the winter was, we had
those double stretches of sub-zero temperatures that hit us hard.
And so people were firing up their furnaces.
And then the next month, they were looking at their utility goals going, what the heck
happened because my prices are off the charts?
And we're concerned that that could be a problem again this winter.
Speaking of temperatures, though, this El Nino weather pattern could help, could be warmer.
It's always kind of not known.
No, it's not known.
And we're waiting for an official forecast from the Energy Information Administration.
It won't come out until that next month.
And that one will actually incorporate the forecast of temperatures as well.
And the utilities themselves often put out forecasts, and we're still waiting on that.
But the information we have so far shows, especially for people in rural Wisconsin that
use propane or in areas of the state that still use heating oil, but this could be a
tough winter.
Because the heating oil price projections put it up more than 30 percent, but is that
a small number of people who use oil in Wisconsin?
Yes, it is.
It's a very small amount.
I just looked and it's about 35,000 households across the state that use it.
And this would be a good year to get rid of heating oil if you have time before the real
sub-zero hits to really take that step and get rid of those and replace it with natural
gas or a different heating source.
This would be the year to do it because the prices are off the charts, because heating
oil is really directly affected by crude oil prices.
Propane is also affected, but not quite as much by crude oil prices, but it is affected.
So propane and electric, I understand, represent about 500,000 households together.
And those price projections are at about nine percent.
Where do people mostly use propane and electric?
Because what, like 65 percent of people use natural gas?
Correct.
Two-thirds of Wisconsin's use natural gas.
And propane is the farm.
The rural areas of Wisconsin are often on propane because the natural gas system hasn't
connected them.
And so a lot of rural Wisconsinites should really reach out to their propane dealers
and maybe get multiple quotes this year just to see what deal you can get and maybe try
to lock that in because the prices are concerning.
But there are opportunities to convert to natural gas in some areas now.
And so that's an option to think about it.
So you also say that there are other ways that people can potentially save, including
through the program, focus on energy.
And that is like legitimate.
Yeah, that's a statewide program that everybody pays into who's a utility customer in Wisconsin
pays into focus every year.
And so what we want to see is more people take advantage of focus and get the benefits.
So this is the program that used to provide LED light bulbs to everybody.
And now LED prices have come down so much that focus provides incentives in other ways.
They actually have incentives if you want to add solar to your house.
They have incentives on a highly efficient furnace.
They have incentives on insulation and air sealing.
And the biggest thing and newest thing that they have is they have funding through the
Inflation and Reduction Act that Congress passed a few years ago for a whole variety
of programs that help all customers.
But actually there's extra incentives for low-income customers that are built into that.
And so people should really take a look at the Focus on Energy website.
It's FocusOnEnergy.com and there's a really handy Get Started button on there that you
can enter in your information and even your income and it'll let you know the kinds of
things that you're eligible for.
So that's a really important thing to know.
The other thing that you are watching is a price hike on the horizon from some utility
companies coming up to the start of the new year.
What's that?
So both we energies and Wisconsin Public Service.
So a lot of the eastern half of Wisconsin are in for rate hikes right in front of the
Public Service Commission right now.
Our consumer advocate is involved in those cases to try to bring down the size of those
increases.
And so we've been vocal on that in trying to target high profits and other issues.
Solar cost overruns for solar projects.
Sort of directors fees that we think customers shouldn't be responsible for.
And so those cases are ongoing right now.
The utility in both cases, both utilities have actually, the residential prices would go
up 14 to 15% over the next two years.
Which is even with inflation where it is now, that's well, at least twice the rate of inflation
over the next two years.
And so for customers of the Green Bay utility, there's still time to weigh in.
There's a public hearing coming up this Tuesday on Zoom and in Green Bay that people could
participate in.
And public comments are still being accepted on that case through October 5th on the PSC
website.
And we have a lot of resources on our active cases page at cubbedmui.org for customers
who want to participate and have a say before those cases are decided.
All right.
Tom, content.
Thanks very much.
Thanks for your work.
All right.
Thank you so much.
So the utility company rate hike proposals, two questions, is the PSC expected to just
approve those or do public comments and the kind of advocacy that you're doing make a difference?
So our advocacy is in the case, the low-income advocate and Milwaukee is in the case, the
big manufacturers are in the case, the Walmart is in the case, but public comments do make
a difference.
Every commissioner has to either read the comments or sometimes they actually show up at the
hearings.
And thematically, it's interesting because in the week energies case, which the public
comment period has already done, there were, I think, 1800 public comments, which is a
big number for a rate case.
And a lot of them, a lot of the comments zeroed in on issues that are experts that we have
testifying in the case are actually testifying on, which is the profits, the Board of Director
fees, and kind of just the executive pay, CEO pay, and just corporate power, I guess,
if you will.
And so we have testimony that says that we could save a couple hundred million dollars,
two hundred million for W for we energies and other hundred million dollars for WPS just
on the profits.
And so it's interesting that in the we energies case at least, the comments from the public
are actually resonating with the issues that our experts are bringing up in the case.
And so this is my other question about that.
In your review of this, it's more about kind of the quote, corporate profit angle.
It's not about the demand that is expected from utilities.
It's more about, so the utilities are trying, they have requests and they say these requests
are needed because of all the new projects they're building that they, that are going
into service.
And yes, that's true, but we found, we, we looked at the case and the PSE staff looked
at the case, the auditors at the PSE looked at the cases that yes, but there are all
these other, there's other areas where we can offset some of those increases by bringing
down the profit or by addressing board of making shareholders instead of customers pay
for your board of directors fees and a whole host of other issues that the PSE staff brought
up.
In fact, between the PSE staff testimony and cubs testimony, we would take a 15% increase
and bring it almost to zero or even below, even to a decrease if the three commissioners
voted for everything that cub asked for and the PSE staff recommends in the case.
All right, well, we'll be watching.
And they'll be deciding that probably in early November after the election, they'll
be deciding both those cases, sometime, one of the first or second or third Thursday
in November is typically when they vote on those, so your, your team's aware.
Great.
All right, good.
Well, thank you so much and, and thanks for joining us on this Friday.
All right.
Super.
Well, thank you and appreciate the opportunity.
Okay.
All right.
Stay warm.
Yes, exactly.
Take care.
Thanks.
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