Avista wielding power

I recently Googled “natural gas prices” on my computer. What I found was that the price for natural gas is at a seven-year low. Now, you would think that the Utilities and Transportation Commission would check the price of natural gas before granting Avista a rate hike. The only thing I can assume is that the people on this commission are lobbyists for Avista.

Oh, how I long for the days when we had a locally owned utility named Washington Water Power whose goal was to provide a service to the community. What we have now is a greedy corporation that has a monopoly, and its intent is to raise our rates every four months. They obviously have the utilities commission in their pocket so they won’t have to worry about any opposition.

Since the price for natural gas is going down and customer rates are going up, there will be a nice profit and extra bonuses for the chief executive officer and executive staff.

Who is watching out for the average Joe and Joe senior citizen who are struggling to make ends meet? Sadly I think we all know the answer to that.

Myra Johnson

Spokane