We got our bill from the gas company the other day. The much ballyhooed refund was on there, but it wasn't as much as the newspaper stories had led us to believe it would be. And those crafty devils at NW Natural had the nerve to offset it partially by charging us something called an "income tax true-up." Something about their 2007 taxes. Whatever, fellas.
I paid a fortune to heat my tiny rental house this winter. The $25 credit I received on this month's bill hardly makes up for what I spent on their inflated fuel prices since last November.
ahhh--LNG piplines running across miles and miles property that's been acquired with eminent domain. And scores of "green" pipeline crossings of streams and rivers. All set up by FERC and Cheney. Now it's feeding time.
Par for the course. "Obama environmentalism", in the guise of big-hat-no-cattle Ken Salazar, is all about alternative energy, and ripping apart the land for wind farms, solar fields, geothermal plants, LNG, and all the sundry transmission lines and storage depots.
Sorry to be contrary again, but doesn't simple economics say that this will LOWER our heating bills because it will increase the supply of natural gas. (LNG is natural gas that has been liquified for easier shipment - it is turned back into a gas, at the terminal, to feed the pipeline.)
We take people's land for view sheds, for light rail and to implement planner's idiot schemes, why not a thin strip (which can still be farmed) to really benefit people by getting all of us lower cost home heating?
Now many people have to choose between food and heat at today's prices?
I used to work for the company that handled electronic payments for both Northwest Natural and PGE. Every morning when I came in, I knew firsthand exactly how much the executives of both utilities loved you, because I'd have to talk down at least one customer who called customer service to find out what the hell was going on and was told "I'll have to transfer you to [old workplace]. They'll be able to tell you why your bill is so high." Naturally, we had no way of accessing billing information, but PGE in particular could save money by getting irate customers off their phone lines that much sooner.
(If it helps, the worse the utility, the more likely it was to hire a third-party entity to handle its online and phone payments. Eighty percent of our calls came from American Electric Power, which was so bad about dumping calls on us that we were forbidden, on pain of termination, to set up conference calls with AEP reps after those reps had told the customer to call us. We were spending too much time making those pwecious snowflakes out as liars, you see, and that was cutting into valuable profits by using up their telephone juice. Or something.)
Charamba, Douro 2008
Horse Heaven Hills, Cabernet 2010
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills Pinot Grigio 2011
Avignonesi, Montepulciano 2004
Lorelle, Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2011
Villa Antinori, Toscana 2007
Mercedes Eguren, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Lorelle, Columbia Valley Cabernet 2011
Purple Moon, Merlot 2011
Purple Moon, Chardonnnay 2011
Abacela, Vintner's Blend No. 12
Opula Red Blend 2010
Liberte, Pinot Noir 2010
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Indian Wells Red Blend 2010
Woodbridge, Chardonnay 2011
King Estate, Pinot Noir 2011
Famille Perrin, Cotes du Rhone Villages 2010
Columbia Crest, Les Chevaux Red 2010
14 Hands, Hot to Trot White Blend
Familia Bianchi, Malbec 2009
Terrapin Cellars, Pinot Gris 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2009
Campo Viejo, Rioja, Termpranillo 2010
Ravenswood, Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2010
Waterbrook, Reserve Merlot 2009
Lorelle, Horse Heaven Hills, Pinot Grigio 2011
Tarantas, Rose
Chateau Lajarre, Bordeaux 2009
La Vielle Ferme, Rose 2011
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio 2011
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir 2009
Lello, Douro Tinto 2009
Quinson Fils, Cotes de Provence Rose 2011
Anindor, Pinot Gris 2010
Buenas Ondas, Syrah Rose 2010
Les Fiefs d'Anglars, Malbec 2009
14 Hands, Pinot Gris 2011
Conundrum 2012
Condes de Albarei, Albariño 2011
Columbia Crest, Walter Clore Private Reserve 2007
Penelope Sanchez, Garnacha Syrah 2010
Canoe Ridge, Merlot 2007
Atalaya do Mar, Godello 2010
Vega Montan, Mencia
Benvolio, Pinot Grigio
Nobilo Icon, Pinot Noir, Marlborough 2009
Portuga, Rose 2011
Revelation, Chardonnay, Pays d'Oc 2010
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 2005
Monte Alto, Tinto Reserva 2005
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Cabernet, Indian Wells 2009
Espiral, Vinho Rose
Vin-Koru, Pinot Gris 2011
14 Hands, Hot to Trot Red 2009
Rodney Strong, Cabernet, Sonoma 2009
Abacela, Vintner's Blend #11
Portuga, White 2010
La Bourgeoisie, Red 2009
Januik, Red 2009
Three Rivers, River's Red 2008
Kirkland, Alexander Valley Merlot 2008
Muga, Rioja Rose 2010
Quinta das Amoras, Vinho Tinto 2009
Mauro Molino, Barbera d'Alba 2009
Garda Chiaretto Rose
Columbia Crest, Two Vines Vineyard 10 White
Chateau Ste. Michelle, Pinot Gris, Columbia Valley 2009
L'Hortus, Rose de Saignee 2010
Maculan, Pino & Toi 2008
McKinley Springs, Bombing Range Red 2008
Trader Joe's Pinot Gris 2009
Montes Alpha, Cabernet 2007
Gran Sasso, Sangiovese, Terre di Chieti 2009
Garda, Classico Chiaretto Rose
Beaulieu, Cabernet, Rutherford 1999
Picos del Montgo, Tempranillo 2008
Chateau de Montmirail, Vacqueyras 2008
La Granja 360, Syrah 2009
Montgras, Carmenere Reserva 2009
Lange, Pinot Gris 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet 2008
Kirkland, Pinot Grigio 2010
Trader Joe's Coastal Syrah 2009
Columbia Crest, Horse Heaven Hills Merlot 2008
Trader Joe's Coastal Chardonnay 2009
Vieux Papes Red
Domaine de l'Aujardiere, Chardonnay 2009
Santa Rita, Cabernet, Medalla Real 2007
Penfold's, Koonunga Hill Shiraz Cabernet 2008
Guild, Red, Lot #02 2008
Dievole, Dievolino Sangiovese 2008
Laforet, Burgogne Chardonnay 2009
Columbia Winery, Merlot 2007
Bonterra, Cabernet 2008
Elk Cove, Pinot Gris 2009
Maquis Lien 2006
Scott Paul, Pinot Noir, Le Paulee 2007
The Occasional Book
Neil Young - Waging Heavy Peace
Mark Bego - Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul (2012 ed.)
Jenny Lawson - Let's Pretend This Never Happened
J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey
Charles Dickens - A Christmas Carol
Timothy Egan - The Big Burn
Deborah Eisenberg - Transactions in a Foreign Currency
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. - Slaughterhouse Five
Kathryn Lance - Pandora's Genes
Cheryl Strayed - Wild
Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The Brothers Karamazov
Jack London - The House of Pride, and Other Tales of Hawaii
Jack Walker - The Extraordinary Rendition of Vincent Dellamaria
Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin
Niccolò Machiavelli - The Prince
Harper Lee - To Kill a Mockingbird
Emma McLaughlin & Nicola Kraus - The Nanny Diaries
Brian Selznick - The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Sharon Creech - Walk Two Moons
Keith Richards - Life
F. Sionil Jose - Dusk
Natalie Babbitt - Tuck Everlasting
Justin Halpern - S#*t My Dad Says
Mark Herrmann - The Curmudgeon's Guide to Practicing Law
Barry Glassner - The Gospel of Food
Phil Stanford - The Peyton-Allan Files
Jesse Katz - The Opposite Field
Evelyn Waugh - Brideshead Revisited
J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
David Sedaris - Holidays on Ice
Donald Miller - A Million Miles in a Thousand Years
Mitch Albom - Have a Little Faith
C.S. Lewis - The Magician's Nephew
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
William Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream
Ivan Doig - Bucking the Sun
Penda Diakité - I Lost My Tooth in Africa
Grace Lin - The Year of the Rat
Oscar Hijuelos - Mr. Ives' Christmas
Madeline L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time
Steven Hart - The Last Three Miles
David Sedaris - Me Talk Pretty One Day
Karen Armstrong - The Spiral Staircase
Charles Larson - The Portland Murders
Adrian Wojnarowski - The Miracle of St. Anthony
William H. Colby - Long Goodbye
Steven D. Stark - Meet the Beatles
Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
Rick Moody - Garden State
Jonathan Schwartz - All in Good Time
David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt
Road Work
Miles run year to date: 21
At this date last year: 52
Total run in 2012: 129
In 2011: 113
In 2010: 125
In 2009: 67
In 2008: 28
In 2007: 113
In 2006: 100
In 2005: 149
In 2004: 204
In 2003: 269
Comments (10)
A good reason to never, never, never have annual legislative sessions and to use only alternative energy as soon as you can.
Posted by A Hopeful | June 8, 2009 10:40 AM
I paid a fortune to heat my tiny rental house this winter. The $25 credit I received on this month's bill hardly makes up for what I spent on their inflated fuel prices since last November.
Me = bitter natural gas user.
Posted by Brandon | June 8, 2009 10:44 AM
ahhh--LNG piplines running across miles and miles property that's been acquired with eminent domain. And scores of "green" pipeline crossings of streams and rivers. All set up by FERC and Cheney. Now it's feeding time.
Posted by jimbo | June 8, 2009 10:49 AM
Par for the course. "Obama environmentalism", in the guise of big-hat-no-cattle Ken Salazar, is all about alternative energy, and ripping apart the land for wind farms, solar fields, geothermal plants, LNG, and all the sundry transmission lines and storage depots.
Posted by PJB | June 8, 2009 10:55 AM
Another great piece of investigative blogging by Jack Bogdanski!
I got my new bojack stickers!
BOJACK FOR MAYOR
Posted by al m | June 8, 2009 11:52 AM
With AFL/CIO in bed with Oregon Industries, Business Alliance, and Chamber of Commerce you know you have been bent over and the cattle prod is coming.
Posted by KISS | June 8, 2009 12:07 PM
You can use it to pay the 18% bump in water rates strting in July.
Funny, I thought inflation was like 1%?
Posted by Steve | June 8, 2009 12:31 PM
Sorry to be contrary again, but doesn't simple economics say that this will LOWER our heating bills because it will increase the supply of natural gas. (LNG is natural gas that has been liquified for easier shipment - it is turned back into a gas, at the terminal, to feed the pipeline.)
We take people's land for view sheds, for light rail and to implement planner's idiot schemes, why not a thin strip (which can still be farmed) to really benefit people by getting all of us lower cost home heating?
Now many people have to choose between food and heat at today's prices?
Thanks
JK
Posted by jim karlock | June 8, 2009 12:57 PM
We got a $8.99 refund and they charged us
$8.49 for the 2007 "true-up". What the ?
How convenient. Thugs.
Posted by kathe w. | June 8, 2009 2:26 PM
I used to work for the company that handled electronic payments for both Northwest Natural and PGE. Every morning when I came in, I knew firsthand exactly how much the executives of both utilities loved you, because I'd have to talk down at least one customer who called customer service to find out what the hell was going on and was told "I'll have to transfer you to [old workplace]. They'll be able to tell you why your bill is so high." Naturally, we had no way of accessing billing information, but PGE in particular could save money by getting irate customers off their phone lines that much sooner.
(If it helps, the worse the utility, the more likely it was to hire a third-party entity to handle its online and phone payments. Eighty percent of our calls came from American Electric Power, which was so bad about dumping calls on us that we were forbidden, on pain of termination, to set up conference calls with AEP reps after those reps had told the customer to call us. We were spending too much time making those pwecious snowflakes out as liars, you see, and that was cutting into valuable profits by using up their telephone juice. Or something.)
Posted by Texas Triffid Ranch | June 8, 2009 4:32 PM