Venezuela raises electricity rates amid blackouts

[Bacchus39]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110613/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_blackouts

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan officials announced measures aimed at saving electricity on Monday, saying power consumption must be reduced by 10 percent and warning that hefty surcharges will be imposed on consumers who don't reduce usage.

Vice President Elias Jaua said the measures aimed at avoiding "inappropriate and excessive use" of electricity will force individuals as well as businesses to reduce energy consumption or face fines and possible suspension of electricity services.

The plan was announced after the country was hit by three major blackouts in the past three months.

The most recent outages hit western Venezuela on Friday and Saturday, affecting several states and the country's second-largest city, Maracaibo. The outages began Friday night with the failure of a transformer in Zulia state, officials said. Other transformers exploded before dawn Saturday, affecting the states of Zulia, Trujillo, Merida, Tachira and Barinas.

Jaua told a news conference that residential customers will be charged an additional fee totaling 75 percent of their monthly bill if they do not reduce their electricity use by at least 10 percent as compared to the same month in 2009. The surcharge applied to individuals increases to 100 percent or more if the monthly consumption exceeds previous usage by 10 percent.

[Bacchus39]

1. haha but on Sunday "Elias Jaua assures that there will not be a tariff increase on electricity".

http://www.patriagrande.com.ve/temas/venezuela/elias-jaua-asegura-que-no-habra-aumento-de-tarifas-del-servicio-electrico/

Elías Jaua asegura que no habrá aumento de tarifas del servicio eléctrico


El vicepresidente de la República, Elías Jaua Milano, manifestó este domingo que “nunca será parte de una política del Gobierno Revolucionario del presidente Hugo Chávez, un incremento de tarifas (eléctricas) para limitar la demanda del pueblo pobre”.

(The vice president manefested on Sunday that there "never will there be as part of the policy of the Revolutionary goverment of Hugo, an increase in tariffs to limit the demand of the poor.")

Tras efectuar una inspección en la subestación El Tablazo ubicada en el estado Zulia, Jaua señaló que hay sectores interesados en crear una tesis de que aumentando las tarifas eléctricas se disminuirá el consumo.

Al respecto, comentó que esa medida lo único que generaría es limitar el acceso al servicio eléctrico al pueblo para privilegiar sólo a los sectores de poder monetario.

“Hay tesis que el Presidente nunca ha aceptado, que una manera de regular la demanda es incrementar las tarifas de manera muy alta, para que los pobres no consuman y convertir el uso de la electricidad en un elemento solamente de las élites que pueden pagar tarifas muy altas”, subrayó.

"There is a theory that the president has never accepted, that one way of regulating demand is increase the tariffs very high, so the poor don't consume and convert the use of electricity as only an element of the rich who can pay the tariff."


and now they are raising tariffs 10%

[joshcryer]

2. Is there any more corrupt country in Latin America? Jesus.

[Bacchus39]

3. no, there is not n/t

s

[Bacchus39]

4. "We have overcome the energy crisis"

scroll down about half way to the youtube video of Chavez from 2010.

http://caracaschronicles.com/

[joshcryer]

5. I can't believe this guy is going to get reelected.