Your Electric Bill Is Going Up

The Daily Beast delivers some bad news after looking at the regulatory filings of utilities across the country: Electric rates are going up, and they won't be coming back down for a while. The problem is that the utilities have to make badly needed repairs to the nation's creaking power plants, or build new ones altogether to comply with stricter environmental laws.

What's worse, writes Laura Colarusso, is that the hefty increases are coming just as the White House and Congress begin cutting programs—notably the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program—to help the needy pay their utility bills. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle from cold-weather states are fighting to have the cuts restored.