After years of rate hikes, the residents of Cana, Va., are fighting against the Appalachian Power Company to avoid having to pay even more for electricity. On Jan. 14, the State Corporation Commission approved additional surcharges that bring the total rate increase over last year to 25 to 30 percent for most residents. The latest hike is the fourth in two years, with rates rising nearly 50 percent during that period.
Residents report that the increases have generally come in December and January, some of the coldest winter months. In response, they have started petitioning for a moratorium on rate hikes. The latest hike follows service outages across Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia, where nearly 220,000 residents were without power following winter storms.
Donnete Leonard, a resident of Cana, explained: “People shouldn’t have to choose between groceries and paying your power bill in January. People have watched their electric bills double and triple in the coldest winter we’ve had in quite a while.”
