Duke to increase gas rates

When you see a headline that says Kentucky will pay more for gas or electricity, you can bet that Kentucky will, well, pay more for gas or electricity.

This is the state where adults of any age aren't allowed to buy beer in almost half the counties. You're no longer even allowed to buy most fireworks even just before the Fourth of July. But Allowed Clouds end where corporations begin. Utility companies win a rate increase just for the asking.

Duke Energy (the energy monopoly that covers northern Kentucky) decreed yesterday that they have filed to increase natural gas rates - which will cost residential customers a staggering 18% more.

That's nice, considering the minimum wage just went up by - wait, it didn't.

Duke filed this rate hike request with Kentucky regulators, and news accounts act as if regulators have already approved it. That may be fitting, as Kentucky's so-called regulators rubber-stamp every rate hike utility companies ask for.

(Source: http://www.kypost.com/content/wcposhared/story/Ky-Residents-To-Pay-More-For-Natural-Gas/g6RW_bRl_kKgPRXj2rr9fQ.cspx)