The free ride is over folks, MG&E decides to bill for electricity, gas, record keeping, meters, poles and the electrical grid.

Gee, nice to know my monthly bill from MG&E is now getting me these "extra" services and benefits, like billing, record-keeping, poles, meters and the electrical grid. It sure is worth the extra cost as itemized here. Question; what was I paying for before?

Wisconsin Energy Industry wants to kill Solar and Wind power generated by Homeowners.

The Bottom Line: Our current regional energy monopolies need to change their business model from supplying energy via coal, gas and nuclear, to mostly providing the infrastructure to deliver energy.

Like the horse and buggy, technology is about to turn We Energy and MG&E out to pasture, and they don’t like it one bit. Big energy is fighting this in other states as well. In Arizona for example, companies actually wanted to charge customers who installed solar panels $100 more a month. That not only kills the green energy market, but penalizes people for trying to save money.

That brings us to Wisconsin:

jsonline: We Energies has dropped its protest of a move by a solar energy coalition and environmental group to get involved in the upcoming fight over its plan to slash payments to customers who generate their own power. The decision means the hearings will become a showdown on questions that could decide how the market for clean energy unfolds in the years ahead.

That already sounds like an outrageous move from a desperate energy company trying to hold onto the past.

We Energies is proposing big changes … say(ing) the move will be more fair for all of its customers. Like We Energies, Madison Gas & Electric Co. wants to pay less to solar power generating customers, as well as add a significant increase in the fixed charge on all customers' bills.

Those in the solar business disagree. They say the utility wants to limit customers' ability to take advantage of falling prices of equipment to generate solar power.

Earlier this month, We Energies … chastised them for … missing a PSC deadline for getting involved in the case. The groups countered that their tardiness should be excused. They claimed that We Energies didn't float its solar proposal and 75% increase in the monthly fixed charge on customers' bills until after that PSC deadline had passed … a customer generating solar power could see the amount paid by the utility drop by more than 34% in 2016.

Scott Walker and the Republican legislature have made it incredibly difficult for green energy to get started in Wisconsin, since big energy contributors call the shots here. That’s not a partisan statement either. Energy monopolies are killing jobs here:

Companies in the solar business, like SunVest Solar in Pewaukee, say the impact will be to spur more clean-energy development — and job creation — outside the state. SunVest develops solar projects in Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Wisconsin. "Unfortunately, 90% or more of that work is being done in other states," said SunVest owner Matt Neumann. "We're creating these jobs in other states and our tax credits are getting invested in other states."

One final note. The following comment is a lie, because rate payers have always paid for utility upgrades and improvements alongside their actual energy costs. The idea that a utility didn't get full compensation from a customer for the power grid is insulting.  

We Energies stresses that customers who don't produce their own power are gaining benefits from the power grid that they aren't fully compensating the utility for. 

Big Energy companies like MG&E attack Green Energy, charge more to small customers, Boost their Profits.

Your basic bill from MG&E is going to go up big time, just so you can be their customer, while the energy charge (kilowatt hour) will go down. It’s an amazing counter offensive to save the big energy industry. If only horse and carriage companies had thought of this, they might still be around.

Another words, energy will be cheap whether you get it from MG&E or solar panels on your roof, but your bill will always be really high. That in turn will discourage the growth of green energy. Checkmate. Pretty clever huh?

A few years ago I blogged about how these same big energy companies were having a tantrum over customers saving way too much, which in turn hurt their profits. They were threatening to charge more and penalize those frugal homeowners.

Now they've got an even better plan, and customers have no way to escape getting fleeced by their local monopoly.

Cap Times: Smaller customers of Madison Gas & Electric could see the fixed portion of their monthly bill jump dramatically under a sweeping rate change proposal from the investor-owned utility.

Right now, homeowners and renters pay MGE a set charge of about $10 a month (called a "customer charge" on typical MGE bills) regardless of how much electricity they use. That would increase to $49 by 2016 under a two-year rate plan … For natural gas customers, the monthly fixed charge is proposed to go from $12 to $21 in 2015.

If you save energy, you’re a freeloader to MG&E:

“Under MGE's current rates, lower usage customers are not paying an appropriate share of the fixed costs of service,” (an) MGE’s rate analyst said in testimony to the PSC earlier this month, adding that the fixed charges could rise to $69 in 2017. MGE proposal also includes a lowering of the kilowatt hour (kWh) charge for the amount of electricity used. 

Consumer advocates say the changes will have a chilling effect on customers who have taken steps to cut their electricity use. “Increasing the minimum monthly payment from $10 to nearly $70 is a giant step backwards and runs completely counter to the concept of a ‘community energy company,’ ” says Kira Loehr, acting director of the Citizens Utility Board which is fighting the proposal.

But environmental groups say … will act as a disincentive for customers to purchase energy-efficient appliances or make other improvements. A lowering of electric rates could especially hurt those who have invested in solar power installations based on calculations of how much money they will save over the long term. The bottom line is that bills are going down for big users and going to go up for smaller users,” says Michael Vickerman of Renew Wisconsin, which has done its own analysis of the proposal.

Some states like Arizona are now charging a tariff to those who have installed solar panels on their homes or businesses in an attempt to make up for lost electric sales.

Always remember who's in the back pocket of big energy, and it's not the Democrats.