NJ Electric Rates Are Out of Control

 Up until Feb of this year I only worried about electric usage (more than usual) in the summer when I have to run my AC units for an extended period of time. I had never actually looked at what I was paying per KWH. I just had a vague sense of what kind of usage would result in what kind of bill. 

Then I got a PHEV.

The circumstances for me buying that is not relevant here. What is relevant is that it forced me to consider how much I was paying for electricity. You know the old saying that a conservative is a liberal who got mugged? Well this purchase exposed the mugging.

When I got the vehicle I looked at costs to charge at public points. And what I saw shocked me. 30-60 cent per kwh. In addition to one to three dollar "start fees". Some were in garages that ALSO required you to pay to park. All of this revealed that, at least in my case, it would cost more to charge than it would be to buy gas and use the onboard generator to charge the battery.

 The PHEV I have can get, at best 15 miles of pure electric range. It's a 2018. When charging via 120v AC it takes roughly 7 KWH to charge depending on the state of the battery. At the time of purchase I was paying 6 cents per kwh delivery and 15c/kwh supply. I never understood the breakdown but that's outside the scope of this post. That makes a total of 21c/kwh to charge. Each charge from "empty" would be around $1.45. Since I can only go 15 miles (way less in the winter) per charge that works out to 9c/mile.

Gasoline at that time was about $3.50/ gallon. The vehicle gets ~30 MPG if you discount the electric range. That works out to 11c/mile on gasoline (worse in traffic where battery is a huge boost). So you could see that it WAS 2c/mile cheaper to charge the battery and get those 11 miles. And definitely not worth it to charge at ANY public charge point which was FAR more expensive that premium fuel. 

Now when the vehicle is charging, mpg drops to ~26mpg. So I'm losing 5 miles of range per gallon. However; it doesn't take an entire gallon to charge the battery. Even if it did, I would be paying 55c to charge the battery using the onboard generator. Far far less than plugging in at home.  

Then the summer came and NJ electric rates went to shit. I'll pause here to comment on the so called green initiatives that are the cause of this problem. The idiots who put these mandates in place are so inept that they cannot understand that you do not take power offline until you have an equal or better replacement ready to replace it. Nope, NJ apparently gutted 6 power plants and replaced them with so called "renewable" energy that cannot meet demand. At the same time they are pushing for people to purchase EVs which, tadah, increases electricity demand. But back to the story.

The current electric rate for me is 9c/kwh delivery and 20c/kwh for supply.

That is a 50% increase in "delivery" and 30% increase for supply. Overall that's 29c/kwh up nearly 50% from Feb. 

Let that sink in.

So now we go and run these calculations again. 7kwh at 29c/khw is $2.03 to fully charge from near zero. At the best range of 15 miles that's now 13c/mile (Compared to 9c just a few months ago).

Meanwhile gasoline is still hovering around $3.40/gal. which is 11c/mile. It is now more expensive to charge my vehicle to run on "clean" electricity then it is to use gasoline.

These are the idiots running NJ (and elsewhere).

Isn't it cheaper to charge overnight? Well maybe. If you live in a house, I do not, you may have lower rates at night. If you don't there are programs to put in a smart charger that apparently reports that you are charging an EV to the electric company and it gives you a discount for the energy consumed. Of course if you don't live in a house, like me, you cannot get on this program because you cannot install a smart charger. Nor do you get lower rates that MAY be available to houses. 

Word is that rates are going to go up significantly again in the near future. Beyond EVs this is untenable. You cannot have 30-50% increases in rates every year or even two years. It is also past time to put the climate scammers out of power and out of influence.

The Real Issue with Mamdani's Apartment

 NYC traditional Dems are still in denial about why Mamdani is currently ahead in the polls and likely to be NYC's next mayor. There are a myriad of reasons for this but I'd like to highlight this recent NY Post article which shows one glaring issue:

The rent is too damn high.

 

 Of course anyone with a functioning brain knows that such a law will not only affect Mamdani but a whole lot of people seeking a place to live without handing over half or more of their pay.

"Mamdani, 33, who rakes in $142,000 a year as a state assemblyman and whose wealthy family includes his filmmaker mom and professor dad, has been living in a $2,300-a-month, one-bedroom pad in Astoria." 

Firstly, in NY 142k a year is not all that much. But the kicker here, and what's relevant is that Cuomo has acting like 2300/mo rent for One Bedroom (no work on size) is acceptable. Sure NY residents may be used to it, but normalizing that kind of number (more in Manhattan) is one of the problems that put Mamdani on top.

"“We’re not supposed to be providing rent-stabilized apartments to the children of millionaires.” 

Unless those parents are paying the rent, it's not relevant if THEY are millionaires. Also one can be a millionaire  (in assets) and STILL shouldn't be paying 2300/mo in rent for a one bedroom apt. This goes to the point I mentioned in the opening. I know people who are millionaires (in assets) who live in places with lower rent than Mamdani is paying (for more space) and a part of how they became millionaires is because they lived way below their means.

As a matter of fact, living below ones means is the primary way people build wealth and acquire assets. What Cuomo is proposing would undercut this avenue of wealth building. If anything Cuomo should be doing what Mamdani is doing and seeing how he can reduce the cost of living for NYC residents so that they TOO can live below their means and build wealth and then move out of apartments into homes they can actually afford.  

Cuomo apparently said the following: 

"“Somewhere last night in New York City, a single mother and her children slept at a homeless shelter because you, Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, are occupying her rent-controlled apartment,” Cuomo wrote in a viral tweet that racked up more than 28 million views."  

 

How many single mothers with children are making enough money to afford 2300/mo for a one bedroom? The yearly cost of that rent is $27k not including any of the other bills associated with living there.  You're not supposed to spend more than 25% of income on rent which means this "mother" would need to be making $110,000. $110,000 after taxes in NYC is around 70-80k depending on other things. This leaves $52k after rent for the year  or roughly 5k a month for all other expenses. If she was making that money, she's not in a homeless shelter with her kid.

How many people fell for this line?

The actual median income in NYC is 80k. So the numbers are even more bleak. That rent would be closer to 35% of income (before taxes) and 46% after estimated taxes.

Lets put it this way. If people earning $100k/year are sleeping in homeless shelters, The problem is NOT Mamdani's rent. It's a structural problem that many people have been pointing out.

NYC and NYS cannot keep raising taxes on property owners directly or indirectly through the fees and the like on services and at the same time squawk about affordable rent as if these taxes and fees don't end up coming out the pockets of renters.

This is what gives Mamdani a platform

"Mamdani landed the rent-regulated apartment on StreetEasy when he was making $47,000, his camp said." 

Yes and I'm not mad at him for it. Not at all. There is no reason to increase one's expenses just because you have more income. Furthermore the government should not be able to force you to do so. Sane people understand this and this is why Cuomo and his ilk are trailing in the polls.

This is not a support of Socialism. This is a critique of the current system which has become unhinged from reality.  But of course that is the problem with NYC right now: Unhinged from reality.