State’s electric rates are too high

It’s not exactly unusual for customers to complain about their electricity bills. But repeated rate hikes over the past decade have made Westar Energy’s customers particularly mad. And last year’s merger with Kansas City Power and Light only served to keep the company’s finances — and its profit margin — in public view.

Residential and industrial customers have now taken their angst to the Kansas Statehouse. The result: at least half a dozen proposals aimed at changing the way electric utilities can set rates and evaluating how they got so high in the first place.

Christina Amerin, a teacher who lives near Junction City, put solar panels on her house a few years ago to counter the rising electricity rates she was seeing. But that hasn’t worked as well as she’d hoped.