Editorial: Plain speaking

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

T hat explanation of charges that came with your Southwest Gas bill may have left you, as it did us, wanting an explanation.

It is written in English and taken individually the words make sense. Taken together they defy meaning. Try to decipher what a "consolidated annual deferred energy account adjustment" is. That might as well be Latin.

As Phoebe Snow reported in Monday's Las Vegas Sun, regulators' demand for technical precision in explanations of utility bills comes at the expense of clarity.

"What most people want to know is how much they are paying, bottom line, for a unit of energy," said Rick Hackman, who manages the state Public Utility Commission's consumer complaint resolution division. "In the interest of trying to give an abundance of explanation to this, we end up confusing the customer."

Southwest Gas spokeswoman Cynthia Messina said try as it might to simplify, the utility is handcuffed by legal obligations, which produce "a language that most people are not used to reading."

The commission wants customers to understand their bills, which is why the utilities provide explanations. The state consumer advocate wants to make sure those explanations are seen and notes that the explanations have been reproduced on sheets of fluorescent paper so consumers will actually notice them.

You may notice it but unless you have a law degree or graduated from MIT, the explanation is nothing more than highly visible gobbledygook.

People want a clear understanding of why their bills increase. What is a "consolidated annual deferred energy account adjustment"? It is a cost the gas company passes to you because of the change in the cost of gas. Why can't they say that?

Instead of passing off highly technical information as consumer information, state regulators and the utilities should provide a layman's guide to utility bills or find a way to make the information crystal clear. Otherwise, what is the point? Providing information people cannot understand doesn't make any sense.