By Mike Tony, HD Media
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Bruce Perrone is angry that the West Virginia Public Service Commission is forcing him to pay higher electricity rates to do something he doesn’t want to do: subsidize the coal industry.
Perrone, of Elkview, says his average electric bill from Appalachian Power increased almost 18% from 2021 through 2023.
“Coal barons make enough money as it is,” Perrone said. “They don’t need more dollars out of my pocket as a gift to their industry.”
But Perrone and other Appalachian Power ratepayers have been subjected to a long string of PSC-approved rate hikes in recent years amid the state’s anachronistic reliance on coal-fired electricity.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday, Aug. 20, amid PSC consideration of a proposal from Appalachian Power and fellow American Electric Power subsidiary Wheeling Power for a $265.1 million, 15.4% revenue increase. If the PSC approves it, residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month would see their bill increase $28.72, or 17.6%.
West Virginia ratepayers faced a 90% hike in average residential electricity retail price from 2005 to 2020, per EIA data. Only Michigan had a greater percentage increase. West Virginia had the nation’s third-highest total household electricity costs as a percentage of income in a 2022 nationwide review of electric utility performance by the Citizens Utility Board of Illinois, a consumer advocate group based on federal data largely from 2020.
Perrone has had enough. So he’s suing the three commissioners that comprise the PSC.