Bangor Hydro sends disconnect notices to nearly half its customers.

[crim son]

BANGOR, Maine - Knowing their electricity wouldn’t be cut off in the winter, local residents Lana and Jon Courtright chose to buy food and gasoline instead of paying their electric bill.

The bill was placed on the back burner and now "we’re just behind," Lana Courtright said on Wednesday, adding the couple received a disconnection notice from Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. a couple of days ago for the $400 past due bill.

"What are you going to do," she said. "You need those two to pay the other one."

http://bangornews.com/news/t/city.aspx?articleid=164067&zoneid=176


******

Whoa. That's a lot of people not paying their bills.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

1. Dollars demise.

Unlikely it has escaped Bangor Hydros Canadian owners that globally the dollar is tanking
and it would be prudent to collect what is owed them while it's still worth something?

[high density]

2. I guess they'll be buying groceries a lot more often now?

Groceries are not going to be that useful if the refrigerator and everything else in the kitchen doesn't work because the power is off.

At the end of the article the couple indicates their electricity bills are around $160. I assume that's a monthly figure. Electric heat? They blame the problem on gas but that seems like it would be a rather small part of their budget, even at $3.60/gal.

[crim son]

3. Having electric heat around here is insanity.

I understand that there are people who cannot afford utilities, gas, food and meds, but completely ignoring the electric bill sounds like a bad choice. On the other hand, the complaint about gas prices is no doubt sincere... unless you're living right in the city, distances are l-o-o-o-ng in Maine, and getting groceries can cost you more than the price of food.

[Shorebound]

4. The numbers were overstated

according to a story in this morning's Morning Sentinel out of Waterville:

---
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/5043869.html

Bangor Hydro-Electric spokesperson Susan Faloon said her company has sent out 46,000 disconnection notices so far this year. But customers who were behind in multiple bills were each sent multiple disconnection notices. The 46,000 disconnection notices figure includes the multiple notices sent to single customers, and is not the total number of customers notified.

Faloon said about 8,000 Bangor Hydro customers are behind enough in their bills to be at risk of being disconnected, not 46,000. "The numbers aren't that unusual for this time of year," she said.
---

Still not good, but not as dramatic as yesterday's story originally indicated. I bet the orginal BDN reporter is a little red-faced right now.

[high density]

5. They say they're paying $40/week in gas

Which is pretty reasonable. Last year that was probably $30/week, so something else must've changed in their situation to make that extra $40/mo in gas cause them to ignore their $160/mo power bill.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

6. You didn't get the memo!

In the 50's anyone in school was force fed the "Electricity To Cheap To Meter" propaganda.
Yep, us poor innocent children were told automobile tires made with nukes would be virtually free.
Dad wouldn't leave the driveway without a patching kit and tire irons in the car. The steel belts in your tires today were cotton back then, many inner tubes were still natural rubber and a tires life expectancy was all too often quite short. We were impressed!

Luckily they also taught us to "Duck and Cover" though again they lied to us as to the reason why.
It turned out that it wasn't Russian nukes we had to fear, it was failed U.S. Government policy that we, if it were effective, would Duck and Cover from today. Skyrocketing fuel prices, food prices, healthcare costs and nuclear power plants, that panacea that was to save us all, is now proven to consume more energy to create and maintain that it has the capability of producing!

Many new homes were once constructed without chimneys right here in Maine as the promise of cheap electricity meant electric baseboard heating was just the ticket, yeah, a ticket on the highway to Hell.

[jpak]

7. Power cutoffs loom for many in central Maine (CMP)

http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/news/local/5041976.html

AUGUSTA -- More central Mainers are at risk of having their electricity disconnected this year, as consumers appear to be making hard choices about what bills to pay.

About 29,000 Central Maine Power Company customers are at least 90 days behind in their electric bills, or about 5.5 percent of the company's 540,000 residential customers.

<snip>

CMP disconnected 17,341 customers in 2005, and 18,553 in 2007, according to PUC records.

Number of disconnects, 2005-2007:

2005 2006 2007
Bangor: 2,741 2,964 3,376
CMP: 17,341 17,934 18,553
Maine Public: 1,351 1,249 1,492

<more>

[luckyleftyme2]

8. we had a death in the family last week

THE SUV OF MY WIFE'S gets an average of 19mpg. we had to travel from home to South Portland for four days. we filled up 3 times total last week it cost aprox $196. we budget
$35 a week for that vechicle. My nephew came from michigan and he drives a dodge diesel truck. It was his Dad who passed away.he told us he bought the vechicle because he is saftey officer for a private club and travels a lot of back roads.the reason he came to maine in it was it had good tires and got 21mpg. anyway his last fill up he stopped at $125
and his truck was over quater full when he started and less than full when he stopped.
what i'm trying to say is that many young working people are using credit cards for gas and praying for lower prices. they are not making it. so I'm sure it is effecting people on fixed incomes.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

9. Mainers are more likely to save their economic stimulus checks...

or use them to pay bills than to buy clothing or furniture or go on vacation, according to a poll released Tuesday.

BOSTON GLOBE
Survey: Mainers likely to save checks or pay bills

May 13, 2008

PORTLAND, Maine

A telephone survey by Market Decisions, a Portland-based research company, asked 404 Mainers what they intended to do with the government checks, which are intended to spur consumer spending and jump-start the sluggish national economy.

Overall, a third of the respondents said they would save the money while another third said they would pay bills.
<>
Eighteen percent of the respondents said they would save the money for a rainy day, while 16 percent said they would use it for heating fuel.

Nine percent planned to use the money on nonspecific bills, 7 percent on credit cards, and 6 percent on gasoline and car repairs.
<>
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2008/05/13/survey_mainers_likely_to_save_checks_or_pay_bills/

Isn't it likely the percentages going into car/home fuel tanks will be much higher?