Electric Catch-22

For owners of all-electric homes --houses that use electricity for heating, lighting and all major appliances --the energy crisis has been an unmitigated financial disaster. Electricity has become more expensive, partly because power companies have been passing along the increased costs of coal and fuel oil. The efforts of homeowners to conserve electric power during the energy crisis have had a devastating catch-22 effect: because electricity use declined, the utility companies' revenues fell off. To recoup the loss, the companies have jacked up their rates still further, in some cases to the highest levels since World War II.

Soaring electricity bills are angering homeowners all over the U.S., but the situation appears to be most highly charged in the New York area, where Con Edison's rates are among the highest in the nation. Several hundred residents of affluent Westchester County, which has possibly the largest concentration of all-electric homes in the U.S., have banded together to protest rate increases that have hiked their monthly bills from an average of $136.87 last March to $252.52 this month, an increase of 85%. Says Housewife Tena Jackson: "My electric bill was $267 in February--$98 more over last year for 1,500 kilowatts less." The consumers contend that Con Ed has a moral obligation to adjust its rates downward, and they are refusing to pay their bills until it does so. But Con Ed maintains that the rate hikes are necessary and justified--and in fact is asking the state public service commission to grant it an additional 17.5% increase.

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