USU Housing feels crunch, may have to charge more
Marshall Thompson, Staff Writer
The ripple effect of what some are calling a conspiracy in California has forced Housing and Food Services at Utah State University to consider an increased charge for on-campus housing next semester.
“We’ve heard anywhere from $5 to $35,” said John Ringle, associate director of Housing and Food Services.
Ringle said they haven’t yet discussed how the rates will change for students living in married or family housing.
Ringle said rates have increased because companies and groups like Questar, Logan City and Utah Power and Light have all needed to raise their rates.
“The problem is there hasn’t been any new construction of power plants in the last few years,” Ringle said.
This has forced energy markets in Utah to depend heavily on wholesale energy markets in California.
Brian Andersen, director of Facilities Operations at USU, said, “We buy about 15 percent [of our power] from Western Area Power Administration and the balance of the power from Logan City.”
According to Logan Mayor Doug Thompson, the city buys about two-thirds of its power from the wholesale market in California.
In the last year, California deregulated its power industry. This allowed for what James Krause of Krause and Kaflayan, a law firm in San Diego, called a conspiracy in a class-action lawsuit filed Nov. 27 against Reliant Energy and six other companies.
According to the lawsuit, these companies “embarked on a conspiracy to make available and use confidential real-time industry data as to electrical generating, power plant capacity, utilization and outages … to inflate the market price of wholesale electricity.”
“We are committed to keeping our current rates intact during the current contract period, which is the end of the academic year,” Ringle said.
He said he remembers being a college student during the energy crisis in the mid-1970s with stickers under light switches and long lines for gas.
He said with the problems today maybe people will start conserving more.
As for students in on-campus housing, Ringle said, “It might not benefit them directly, but it would benefit students after them” if current residents tried to conserve energy.
He said the energy concern is the same in that regard as many other problems.
“In housing, current students are always saving money for future students in everything, whether it’s vandalism or energy or whatever,” Ringle said.