To the editor:

Anybody looked closely at their Westar bill lately? Bet not.

One item but two points of interest. Look at “fuel charge,” particularly:

1. What’s happening so far this year? March’s charge ($29.47 for 1,178 kilowatt-hours) is 163 percent of January’s ($18.10 for 1,499 kwh)! That’s right: lower usage, much higher charge.

2. March 2008 ($29.47 for 1,178 kwh) is 212 percent of March 2007 ($13.92 for 1,020 kwh)! Almost equal kwh usage, but twice the charge. Or another way to say it, the fuel charge in March 2007 was $0.0136 per kwh, and in March 2008 it was $0.025 per kwh.

What’s my point? It sure makes it hard to save money on electricity when the provider can hit you like this.

John Hamm,

Baldwin City