Carl Arnheiter is a co-owner of Arcademie, a bar-slash-arcade in Evansville. He’s attaching tape to hundreds of index cards and upon each is written a dollar figure.
“It's my sort of Lo-Fi-graphing approach to the damage CenterPoint is doing to us,” he said.
Each represents a July-August CenterPoint Energy electric bill, each from a different household.
“So, in sort of chart fashion, from lowest bill of $99.41 with solar, to our top bill that was sent in is $1,634.95.”
NPR recently reported that the price of energy has jumped more than twice as fast as the overall cost of living. The effects are felt right here in southern Indiana, where bills recently increased with new electricity rates.
The very hot six weeks prior to this coincided with the latest electric rate hike from CenterPoint Energy, and these figures are the result. They are part of his inaugural “Lights Out” event at Arcademie.
That evening, battery-powered lights and a lack of arcade games give it a post-natural disaster feel.
Arntheiter chose to wade into this conversation as a bar owner because it affects both his personal life and his business life — the utilities he pays, and the utilities his customers pay.
“I have to step in — and it's going to increase again next year,” he said. “It's impossible. We're not going to be able to meet these bills on top of every other demand and the economic uncertainty we're all facing between — tariffs are on, tariffs are off. Alcohol sales are up. Alcohol sales are down.”
Shawn Jenkins of Evansville, who along with his spouse, supports a family. He said his bill increased by nearly $100, using the same amount of electricity.
“I've kept off more lights. I've used less of my AC. I've been doing everything that they've even listed to do, and it hasn't made a difference. I'm still being charged more,” he said.
Mike Roeder, senior VP of External Affairs for CenterPoint, said high bills are due in part to the planned phase rate increase, of an extra $18 average for a 799 kilowatt user.
He blamed the bulk of it on the weather — more power consumption at peak times. “All our air conditioners are running more, and it's taking more time for our appliances to run as well.”
Speakers at the Arcademie event included Christopher Norrick, who highlighted the 14,500 ratepayers who are 60-days behind, who collectively owe $3 million.
He’s an organizer for Direct Action Against CenterPoint Energy. He said there are also “hidden” billable items that used to be called “trackers.”
“They’re variable based charges — the facilities charge and this fuel charge,” he said. “So within those adjustments, there's a dozen line items that are all tied to essentially state law. And so when you start to think about, ‘why are our bills so high,’ a lot of that is hidden fees tacked on by the legislature.”
But there are factors beyond the weather, rate increases and adjustments.
For example, is the utility company investor owned, or is it municipal like the water service? And what is the utilities’ governing body?
In Indiana it’s the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC). Members are selected by the Governor. But in 12 states the utility commission members are elected by the public.
How do these factors affect utility bills? We’ll explore these questions through additional stories.
"Until we change things in Indianapolis, we can't make any changes here in Evansville," said Arnheiter, by way of kicking off the event.
He is planning another event for September 25.
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