Cape Coral residents upset with rising utility bills

A community is outraged over their rising utility bills, and one man is petitioning against a local electric company.

So far, the petition has more than 1,000 signatures and continues to grow. Families all across Cape Coral are struggling, and the petition proves that many can’t handle the increase.

The man who started the petition said he didn’t think anything would come of it, but now he hopes he’s sparked a movement.

On the petition is comment after comment of people outraged over their electric bills, they call unaffordable. Their plan is to continue to speak up until they receive some sort of relief.

In the last year, some LCEC customers have seen increases as high as 50%.

“You know, young families, saying they have to choose between food or electricity, and they can’t afford to, you know, pay their car payment, let alone the electricity costs now. It kind of just aggravated me,” said the man who started the petition who didn’t want to be named.

Four weeks later, the petition now has over 1,000 signatures.

Barbara Dolleschal signed her name. She said there needs to be a better explanation of the cause of the rate hikes. “They say they get higher wholesale prices charged by FPL, but I would like to see the real price comparison. I looked up the FPL bills compared to last year, and the increase was about 10%. And for LCEC, it was 50%,” said Dolleschal.

Justin Adams is the owner of Powerhouse Home Services and knows LCEC prices are up because of rising fuel costs. He recommends customers start to make small changes.

“Make sure they’re changing the air filters and their HVAC unit. When those get clogged up, they are conditioning us to run twice as hard and twice as long,” said Adams.

While these tips won’t lower your next bill drastically, the petitioner told me he hopes more people continue to speak up.

“I just hope that something happens that somebody really looks at us. Even if it’s FPL and says, OK, here, you know, here’s a little bit of a break to start. Here’s some credits or something,” said the man who started the petition.

WINK News reached out to LCEC. The utility said it does provide utility assistance through its Power to Share program with United Way. Last month they provided more than $10,000 to the program.

Click here to view and sign the petition.

When it comes to appliances, TVs, lights and such, you can calculate how much energy you use. With lighting, for example, you can adjust the incandescent wattage, the number of bulbs and how many hours per day lights are on to determine the savings and costs.

For more information, visit this website.