The bad economic news has come in depressingly regular doses — job losses up, stock market down, foreclosures up.
That’s why we were happy to find a nugget of good news in the business section this week.
Xcel Energy is asking regulators for permission to lower your electric bill by an average 13 percent for the first quarter of next year.
Lower, as in decrease.
Surprised? We were. It never seems like the electric bill is going down.
But when we called Xcel, a spokesman told us that the adjustments, which track fuel prices, have been a mixed bag during the last eight quarters.
The charge for fuel — which admittedly is only a portion of your bill — has gone down five times and up three times in that period, said Mark Stutz.
“It’s just not as sexy a story when prices come down,” he said.
Point taken. Perhaps we should just hope for more boring news from Xcel.
Unfortunately, given the volatility of energy prices, who knows what we’ll see in the forseeable future. When gasoline prices were cresting $4 a gallon, who would have thought we’d ever see gas at a buck-fifty again?
Strange times, to be sure. That, we think, makes it all the more worthy of note when there is a bright bit of news that will have a positive effect on our pocketbooks.
