The A/C Bill

Dustbury's post today about the electric bill reminded me of my encounter with the electric company in Phoenix twenty odd years ago.

My wife was due to deliver our first child, so grandma flew down to help out. This is early July and she stayed for about a month. She was a great help, and she liked to cook. We had the A/C cranked down to 72 to keep mom and the baby comfortable, grandma is cooking up a storm in the all electric kitchen, and outside it's over a hundred degrees every day. For a month. My electric bill was $400. Yowzir.

Not that it would have made any difference that July, but I got curious as to why it was an all electric house. Gas was available in other parts of Phoenix, why not in my neighborhood? It seems that electricity and Natural Gas were sold by the same company, and during the oil crisis of whenever, they decided on a moratorium for new gas connections, to help out with the oil crisis you know. Like that would have helped at all. The real reason is they wanted more customers for their brand new atomic power plant. I wouldn't be surprised if they are still building developments without gas connections.

I just realized that this all happened the same year the reactor went on line.

Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant

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