Why’s your electric bill so high?
“Last Week Tonight” host John Oliver has some answers ― starting with a bizarre system in which electric companies have a massive financial incentive to build new infrastructure, but no incentive to maintain what already exists.
The results aren’t just higher costs for residents.
Sometimes, they can be tragic. The deadliest fire in California history started when a hook broke at a PG&E transmission tower. That hook was 97 years old and had never been replaced.
Oliver said he’d normally bring out a mascot to show how “terrible and horrifying” utilities are.
But he didn’t have to in this case.
“They already made a murderous hell-demon almost 100 years ago,” he said, referring to an extremely creepy long-ago mascot for power companies called Reddy Kilowatt.
He regretted it almost instantly.
“I could kill you right now and there’s nothing anyone could do about it,” Reddy Kilowatt declared.
Then, he did exactly that.
“I am gonna get such a fine for that,” Oliver declared with a cackle as the show ended with a tribute to the host: