http://phoenix.bizjournals.com/phoenix/stories/2008/12/15/daily64.html

Arizona doesn't have wind. Arizona public service corp. is building a solar plant but it is unclear whether there is an correlation between that and the 4% rate increase.

One tiny outlier should never be the deciding factor when thinking of the choices to take that affects millions of people. Irrigation pumps in the desert? There's a business with a future.

And I do run a small business.

If this marina/campground has 100 meters, then they are probably metering power to their tenants rather than including it in the site rental fee. I'd also bet that these meters don't belong to the power company, but to the park itself for the purpose above, and aren't subject to the power company's meter fee. That's the way the RV park we live in part time operates. We pay a $2/mo meter fee plus the power we use at the park's business rate directly to the park, not the power company. The $2/mo meter fee is to amortize the cost of the meters over time.

He estimates a two to five thousand dollar increase in his utility bill.

I doubt if that is enough. The typical ankle-biting small businessperson - to use Joe Bageant's term - is getting away with murder. No, we don't need more of them. And no, we don't need the big auto companies. What we need is to get rid of all those resource suckers. Get rid of the camping grounds. Get rid of the marina. And we probably need to get rid of those irrigation pumps too - odds are they are sucking some glacial epoch water supply.

Business. We need to get rid of business. At least as something separate and above society.

cfm in Gray, ME

puhkawn,

Your concern for the small business owners sounds valid and sincere. I was once a business owner myself and can attest to "the law of unintended consequences."

However, we wouldn't want to throw renewables out the window due to the way utilities currently bill if there were some other reasonable solution. Is there the possibility of metering reform of some type that could overcome this problem?

In a way, one can see how it would be to the utilities advantage to stick in as many meters as possble, and then bill the business owner for any and all changes "per meter". The utilities would then have veto power over any attempt at renewables right from the start if this is allowed. It is for this reason that some businesses in the U.S. are going off grid, even if they have to pay a bit more for fuel, because the tacked on fees and expenses of dealing with the electric utility simply become more than the business owner wants to or is able to bear.

RC