Economist aims to make your electricity bill easier to understand

• Lucid bills would also avoid fueling conspiracy theories, he blogs for the school's Energy Institute at Haas.

Friction point: "For most people, the main interface with energy firms is the bill. And that bill looks like an accountant in 1982 got free [rein] and no one took a look," Auffhammer writes.

• His most recent bill is an inscrutable nine pages with "unreadable and meaningless" charts, "jargon everywhere," and a lot of other messiness.

Others have explored this problem.

• A 2019 University of Cape Town survey of more than 1,300 people concluded that "restructuring the bill in a logical order, and displaying electricity consumption with separate bar graphs, had a positive effect on understanding."

What we're watching: Assuming a single blog post can ignite a revolution, Auffhammer has a manifesto ready.

• Bills should have a cover page with three simple panels showing a home's power and gas consumption in simple units; price per unit, and total cost.
• Page 2 would lucidly show various costs incurred by the utility and its profits.
• And finally, a short essay that begins "your bill was higher this month, because..." and then pitches ways to save.

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