By DAN VALENTI

PLANET VALENTI News and Commentary

(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, THURSDAY, NOV. 20, 2014) — THE PLANET calls your attention to the “pure coincidence” involving The Suits’ decision to release information on Western Massachusetts Electric Company‘s upcoming rate increase of 29%. That’s a whopper, to be sure, and it not only riled but sent waves of fear throughout many households and businesses.

The announcement of the rate hike was published in Pittsfield one week after the state elections. You’re shocked, shocked, at this amazing coincidence, right?

The state — the usual gang of idiots from the governor down to the most useless backbencher rep from Podunk, Berlshire County (our vote goes to Gail Cariddi, D-Insignificant) — knew the hike was on the way but said nothing.

Where Were Our State Reps?

THE PLANET wonders where were the public hearings? Where were our state representatives? Why didn’t they know about this in advance? Or did they know and were complicit in holding back the news until after the elections? Ben Downing, Smitty Pignatelli, Paul Mark, Cariddi, and Tricia Farley-Bouvier, what happened?

The increase is expected to add another $30 per month (average) to the electric bills of homeowners and businesses in western Massachusetts. That’s bad enough, but when you also factor in the huge tax increases that the Pittsfield City Council approved to fund the mayor’s untouched budget request, the only questions to ask are, “How fast will businesses and residents be planning their exodus, and where will they go?”

The double-whammy rate and tax hikes will cause some businesses to fold or move. It will also punish many households in Pittsfield, especially seniors on fixed incomes. These households are barely making ends meet now. Another $30, $40, or $50 a month will be devastating.

City leaders know this, but led by Pittsfield’s toothless, feckless mayor, they do not care. They got theirs in the form of huge pay raises The Empty Suit initiated and received at the hands of a complicit council.

The Lights May Be On, but the Opacity Increases

According to information published by the National Consumer Law Center in Boston, electric rate hikes will drive the cost for the proverbial “typical household” to more than $150 a month. National Grid, which is outdoing WMECO by asking the state to approve a 37% hike, has joined its fellow utility in being opaque about the justification for the gargantuan hikes, a lack of transparency that could have come straight from the mouth of TES.

We’ve seen all kinds of factors blamed for the increase, including the polar vortex. One common theme has been to cite the lack of adequate supply of natural gas in Massachusetts, especially western Mass. This scarcity has driven up the cost of making power. If anything, this would seem to make the case for the new pipeline that has so many Berkshire communities in a tizzy.

Backers of the new pipeline say added capacity will lower costs through more supply and greater competition for your energy dollar. Opponents claim Kinder Morgan‘s Tennessee Gas Pipeline Project is not needed, saying supply problems can be solved with greater efficiencies in the current system and more reliance on alternate energy sources (solar, wind).

Northeast Utilities owns both National Grid and WMECO. It’s interesting to note that while National made its request known in late September, WMECO waited until after the election. What, if anything, does this say about politics in Berkshire County and Pittsfield?

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Here’s a related story from the Globe that may interest you: RELATED | Steven Syre: National Grid’s shifty route to lower tax bills

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The electric companies have simply stated they must raise prices because the cost of buying electricity from power plants has skyrocketed to its highest level in decades. Are we simply taking their word for it? Given the silence of state legislators, the answer appears to be “yes.”

“Oh, but it’s only $X a month,” sounds the tired refrain by political apologists who have their cushy deals  secure. However, Pittsfield has too many elderly and poor who will not be able to afford even a slight increase.

Increases Will Drive Out Businesses and Households

In Pittsfield, the combination of the electric bill hikes and the new, higher tax rates will devastate homes and businesses, taking with it much of what is left of the local economy. The city has an enormous debt burden. The municipal pension fund is on the way to failure. The bill for unfunded liabilities looms like Godzilla  towering over a Tokyo skyscraper. At a time when city enrollment in public schools is dropping, the deal for a new high school that will easily top $130 million has been sealed behind closed doors without voters getting a crack at it.

Bottom line is that Pittsfield taxpayers will never be able to pay what corrupt politicians have saddled them with in terms of operating costs, capital expenses, and debt.

For instances like this did the wise man and hero coin his immortal saying about such abominable public servants: “Goddamn phony bastards.”

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“Heigho! The lark and the owl! One flies the morning, and one lulls the night. Only the nightingale, poor fond soul, sings like a fool through darkness and light.” — Percy Bysshe Shelley, from Charles The First, Scene V, (1870).

“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”

LOVE TO ALL.