SCIP Wrecks Local Family Budgets

  Some long time Oracle residents will remember efforts by local leaders to establish OREC (Oracle Electric Coop).  The attempt by those stalwarts supported by the then thriving Oracle Town Hall researched and sought to implement a breakaway corporation focused on fixing the shortcomings of the San Carlos Irrigation Project’s electrical grid.
  Ultimately it proved a bridge too far but in the process the community learned a lot about local control of infrastructure, obstacles to same thrown up by politicians and bureaucrats, and why our electrical grid staggers along with its head barely above water.
  The problems that existed those many decades ago persist as a letter produced by Sheila Miles and Robert Bolton quoted in full shows.   In fact they have metastasized since the OREC days.  
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Below is the Miles/Bolton letter:
  Our community needs help.  We are electric rate payers to the San Carlos Irrigation District, US Department of Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs.
  Our utility rate in less than a year has gone from an effective rate of $.1303/ per kilowatt hour to $.1976 or an increase of 51.7%.  This represents a $200 a month increase for our all-electric, 0 carbon emission home in Oracle, AZ.  My wife and I are retired and in our 70’s.  This is a huge increase for us.
  To put our electric rate in perspective, following is a table of average residential electric rates in cents/kilowatt-hour for years 2022 and 2023 in the Mountain Region:
Source EIA.gov
                              2023    2022
Mountain            14.22    13.09  
Arizona                14.28   13.20                  
Colorado              14.67    14.40  
Idaho                   11.78   11.38  
Montana             13.19    11.61  
Nevada                17.39   13.17  
New Mexico        13.89    14.13  
Utah                     11.45   11.19  
Wyoming             12.62    11.75  
San Carlos Irrigation District
                             19.76     13.03
  We went from a rate slightly under the Arizona average to 38% higher or 5.48 cents per Kilowatt-hour higher than the current Arizona average
  To add insult to injury the August bill contains an increase of 3.1 cents per kW-hour effective September 1 that has retroactively been applied to August billing.
  There are no programs offered by San Carlos Irrigation District to buy back solar energy, subsidize solar energy or to help mitigate energy consumption as many Private Utilities do and are required to do.
 
Thanks for your help,
Sheila Miles & Robert Bolton
 PO Box 211, Oracle, AZ  85623
505.603.3781/505.699.4173