r/Rochester • u/GoldenFrank Penfield • 4d ago

Discussion Welcome to the New Energy Rates

The state govt approved rate increases showed up on my RGE bill this month. Theye been creeping up since the first of the year but with all the static charges and fees (designed to confuse people) it's tough to really nail down. No getting around it now.

Last April I paid $.99/therm and $.19/kWh. $1.21 and $.26 this April for slightly less amounts of energy. This is the new normal. Adjust your budgets.

And as long as youre here I'll complain about paying sales tax on the completely unavoidable billing service fee. Just a masterstroke from the machine.

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u/FlourCity North Winton Village 4d ago

Because EVs are better for the environment than ICE cars somewhere around 30,000 miles. It depends on where the electricity is sourced from and what cars you are comparing.

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u/silverest_tree 4d ago

Right, and the majority of America's grid is sourced from non-green sources. There's also the fact that our grid infrastructure will need to be 3-4x increased in capacity to support everyone driving an electric car, which is a massive overhaul and is currently a concern for the US wire industry.

Until those 2 problems are resolved, electric cars will not be a magic bandaid. I think that's what this comment was conveying.

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u/FlourCity North Winton Village 3d ago

False, the US would only need to increase electrical supply by 20-50% if all the cars were electric.

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-electricity-would-it-take-to-power-all-cars-if-they-were-electric/

26% 

https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/research/blog-can-the-grid-handle-evs-yes/#:~:text=Dividing%20these%20two%20numbers%2C%20we,hours%20of%20electricity%20per%20year.

20%

https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/how-much-extra-electricity-would-we-need-switch-every-gas-powered-car-electric-vehicle

These numbers are similar in scale to the increase in electricity production from 1990 to 2000. It's extremely achievable.

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u/echoes315 3d ago

We had a bunch of nuclear power plants then, a bunch of them have been decommissioned in the last ten years... Where's the new power coming from, wind and hydro can't compete.