Anyone out there frustrated with your gas & electric monopoly? Anyone feel cheated or robbed by the one company that you likely cannot select around in our supposedly free market? How about victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita? Haven't you already felt violated enough without your energy company screwing you?

Here are some facts.

My recent "estimate" for ten days of usage was $51.62. Let's assume that a 30-day month is a full month. That would make a full month's bill $154.86. Yes, this would have been for the end of August. However, my previous two full-month bills (of actual usage) were $121.22 and $131.57. It was $106.90 the month prior to that. That makes Entergy's "estimate" pretty damn generous.

Let's take another example. Sarah's estimate was worse. When you extrapolated a full month's payment from her partial month bill, it would end up as $244.97. Consider two things: first, that this four-person apartment never eked out a bill over $155 because they all are so conscious about watching their bills (and that bill was only so high because their roof was ripped off in Tropical Storm Cindy, and was leaking cold air while that room was repaired, and was high to pay for the tools used to fix it-their next highest bill was like $125); second, that they have individual AC units in their rooms, not central AC, and only two of the four girls were there in the summer.

So with these facts in mind, I encourage anyone who is a Louisiana resident and subject to Entergy's monopoly, to scrutinize your bills. If you find something that does not appear accurate, I encourage you to call Entergy first, but likely you will get nowhere as Sarah and I did. If that happens, you may choose to file complaints with both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commision at http://www.ferc.gov/cust-protect/complaints.asp and the Louisiana Public Service Commission at http://www.lpsc.org/complaints.asp

I am no lawyer, so I cannot say whether you are better off not paying your bill and risking a mark against your credit rating (thus implying a dispute over the bill), or paying, protecting your credit rating, and protesting nonetheless (but risking that your payment indicates an acceptance of the bill). Personally, I think I will pay the bill, but will also send a written letter of protest. Regardless of what you do, it is clear that for Entergy-a company who is about to go into bankruptcy to reduce the amount of their debt they actually have to pay-to extort funds out of the real victims of these horrible situations, is just WRONG.

As people in a social multicultural democracy, we need to stop talking, to stop complaining. We need to start acting. It doesn't take that long to send an email or write a letter. But you'd be amazed at the power enough letters and emails can invoke in the form of the state or federal government, and subsequently bring down upon any actor who thinks the people of this country are beneath them, and that their company is above the law.

So yes. You will hear from me Entergy.