Ross Campbell: If there’s no profit on electricity, then what subsidizes MID water deliveries?

Re “PG&E’s rates actually higher than MID’s” (Letters, June 12): I find the letter from MID’s interim general manager very disingenuous. It makes the point PG&E’s electric rate is 19.5 cents per kilowatt hour, which is higher than the MID average residential electric rate of 18 cents per kilowatt hour. The real question is why is Modesto’s electric rate higher than Turlock’s or Merced’s or the average of California public utilities electric rates, which is 14.5 cents per kilowatt hour as noted in the Sunday, June 5, 2016 Bee (“Think MID’s rates are low? You’d better think again”).

What the GM should be commenting on is why does he transfer millions of dollars from the MID cash reserve each year to cover the operating and capital losses incurred by the irrigation business?

He states in his letter the MID is a not-for-profit organization. If the domestic water business, by contract, does not make a profit or loss and the irrigation business loses money every year, where does the money come from to be transfered to the irrigation business? Could it be that the electric business makes a profit each year?

This story was originally published June 13, 2016 at 12:46 PM with the headline "Ross Campbell: If there’s no profit on electricity, then what subsidizes MID water deliveries?."