Letter to Editor | Regarding OPALCO rate hike

||| FROM ALLAN ROSATO and DARCEY MILLER |||

We are writing out of concern regarding OPALCO’s recently-announced plan to raise the fixed monthly service access charge for residential members. While this may appear to simplify the rate structure, it has a very real and very unequal impact on the people in our community who are already struggling.

San Juan County already has what appears to be the highest monthly service access charge in Washington state. Raising the unavoidable monthly charge from $59.99 to $67.58 per month (with more increases on the horizon) directly harms low-income residents, seniors on fixed incomes, people who have installed solar systems, and families who conserve energy to keep their bills manageable. These households use the least electricity, yet under the new structure, they will pay proportionately more, while higher-use households benefit from lowered per-kWh charges. That is the definition of a regressive rate.

As a cooperative, OPALCO is supposed to serve all of its members equitably. Shifting revenue further away from usage-based charges and into fixed fees reduces people’s ability to control costs through conservation and disproportionately affects those with the least financial flexibility. It also contradicts decades of energy-efficiency policy encouraging lower consumption.

We respectfully ask OPALCO’s board to reconsider this approach and explore alternatives that protect vulnerable members. This could include income-sensitive rate structures, expanded bill-assistance programs, and/or maintaining of a larger share of revenue in the per-kWh charge so members retain some control over their monthly expense. If anything, we should be lowering the monthly charge, falling more in line with utilities across the state. For example, Seattle City Light charges their residential members approximately $9.50 per month for the base access (with $0.1375 per kWh). In Bellingham, the monthly residential fee charged by Puget Sound Energy is $7.49 per month (with $0.1454 per kWh).

We are a rural community that looks out for one another. Our electric cooperative should reflect those values in its decisions.