I introduced myself to the lady with the swag from my two-jobs-ago. We had a good time reminiscing about the shady hazy crazy days of that company. Man, that shit was dodgy. And she was all up in the dodginess, straight out of university. I can't imagine what that must be like, to look back on what you did right out of college and see that doing what you were told to do was drawing the wool over people's eyes.

The auto-translated article from a Norwegian newspaper linked from the Boing Boing post is comedy gold, as well.

I was just wondering if complaints about PG&E bills were like taxes

They more than doubled for a while because of the Enron shenanigans.

Then we got the pleasure of reading transcriptions of the power brokers on the phones laughing like hell while they very deliberately fucked us over.

In fact, should I ever meet somebody at a cocktail party who mentions they were in the Texas energy biz there's a high chance my hands will reflexively fly to their throat.

They more than doubled for a while because of the Enron shenanigans.

My P&G bill would have to triple to equal what I paid in NY or MD.

But I don't think I'm the average consumer. (Given that my monthly bill is $13-14 for gas & electric).

Our energy bills tend to be fairly low - last month's high water mark for me was an $85 bill for an 800 square foot apartment during a single digit cold snap. There are benefits to saying "Sure, build more nuclear power plants in our state!"

my monthly bill is $13-14 for gas & electric

Kerosene lamps?

California's rates are about average and they were before the deregulation disaster. It was a different story when PG&E was forced to buy power at 100 times the going rate. New York and Connecticut generally have the most expensive rates in the continental United States. Hawaii's rates about about double New York's.

eta: Checked up on my memory. Memory was wrong.

I was just wondering if complaints about PG&E bills were like taxes, i.e., Californians think they are so high, but yet they're cheaper than everywhere else I've been.

Not in this case.

And yeah, your energy bills are lower here, but they should be, since it's not snowing and you don't need AC in SF.

And yeah, your energy bills are lower here, but they should be, since it's not snowing and you don't need AC in SF.

Actually, they should be the same since I didn't pay for heat in NY and I didn't have AC until the year I moved.

We're talking stove, fridge, appliances, lights. In a NY 1-bedroom that was about $40-45 a month.

California's cost per kilowatt hour is also lower.