“It’s not like the rates go up, I get a raise,” he said.
The hotter than usual summer resulted in higher electric bills because Elkhart residents plugged in fans and turned down air conditioners to keep cool, CCS officials said. Also many of the unemployed who have returned to work are getting smaller paychecks or they have been laid off again.
People will not be able to cover the rate hike “because they already can’t handle what they have,” Horst said.
Chodak stated, in his testimony, all electric utility providers, including I&M, are facing “a multitude of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations” that include rules to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides as well as rules to control coal ash handling and disposal, and to regulate water usage and discharge from