Variable Energy Charge and Variable Environmental Charge
Variable Energy Charge and Variable Environmental Charge
Central Texas Refuse, LLC and its affiliated entities (“CTR”) aim to provide customers with top-quality service that is both environmentally sustainable and affordable. CTR continues to invest in sustainable, environmentally friendly practices to help reduce our environmental footprint, which may cause CTR to incur substantial costs to provide high-quality services to its customers. Some of these costs may change significantly from month to month, week to week, or even day-to-day. Moreover, fluctuations in such costs are often hard to predict. As such, CTR uses variable charges to address volatility in certain costs of service in lieu of imposing fixed prices that may or may not materialize over the long term. These variable charges allow CTR to maintain acceptable operating margins while also delivering value throughout each customer service relationship. We provide the information below to assist you in understanding these charges and how they are calculated.
Variable Energy Charge
Energy costs – fuel, natural gas, electricity – are constantly changing and are often difficult to predict. Changes in direct costs of energy also ripple into seemingly unrelated costs as most components of CTR’s waste management services contain an energy cost component. In response to the volatility in its energy costs and in order to maintain acceptable operating margins and deliver customer value, CTR may assess a Variable Energy Charge. The Variable Energy Charge is not designed or intended to correlate specifically to the direct costs and expenses of servicing an individual customer’s account. Rather, the Variable Energy Charge addresses overall direct and indirect energy costs incurred by CTR in providing waste management and environmental services to all of its customers.
Unless otherwise negotiated with a customer, CTR bases its Variable Energy Charge on an easily accessible national index: the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Weekly Retail On-Highway Diesel Price Index (the “Index”), located here: https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/. This index, which is objective and widely recognized, is used in many commercial markets to track fluctuations in diesel fuel prices. We use the Index to calculate your Variable Energy Charge.
The Index is published every Monday. We will use the national average price of diesel fuel as published in the Index on a Monday for any invoices generated that week. That national average price per gallon of diesel fuel is input into a formula that produces a percentage, which is applied to the customer’s invoice charges. The CTR Variable Energy Charge Table published below for hauling customers reflects the correlation of changes in the fuel index to changes in applied invoice percentage based on the foregoing. CTR reserves the right to vary the amount or to adjust the formula for calculating the Variable Energy Charge in order to maintain operating margins acceptable to CTR.
If CTR adjusts the formula, it will update the table accordingly. If you have questions regarding your invoice or the Variable Energy Charge calculation on your account, if applicable, please contact your CTR service location.
Variable Energy Charge Table
Visit https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/.
Variable Environmental Charge
CTR is committed to providing top-quality collection, transfer, recycling and disposal services while preserving our environment and remaining in compliance with community expectations and applicable laws and environmental regulations. Honoring this commitment entails direct and indirect costs that vary over time, often significantly, due to any number of factors, including regulatory changes, weather conditions, costs of materials and labor, legal compliance, permitting, construction, landfill capacity and utilization, and local customer and community demands.
CTR’s Variable Environmental Charge is not designed or intended to correlate specifically to the direct or indirect environmental costs of servicing an individual customer’s account. Rather, the Variable Environmental Charge addresses both direct and indirect costs incurred by CTR to operate in an environmentally responsible manner and to maintain operating margins acceptable to CTR.
Absent a negotiated agreement with a customer, CTR generally assesses the Variable Environmental Charge as a percentage of the customer’s invoiced charges, exclusive of taxes and other variable charges. CTR reserves the right to vary the percentage amount of the Variable Environmental Charge in order to maintain operating margins acceptable to CTR. Please check this website regularly to monitor the current percentage. If you have questions regarding your invoice or the Variable Environmental Charge, please contact your CTR service location.
Sample Calculation
The Variable Energy Charge and Variable Environmental Charge included on a customer’s invoice are determined by applying the Variable Energy Charge percentage from the Variable Energy Charge Tables referenced above to the total invoice charge (excluding the Variable Environmental Charge and taxes). The Variable Environmental Charge is then applied to the total invoice charges, (excluding the Variable Energy Charge and taxes). By way of example, the Variable Environmental Charge would be calculated on an invoice for $50.00 in services, with a $6.00 Variable Energy Charge, by multiplying the Variable Environmental Charge percentage by $50.00.
Please note that if you have a written service agreement with us, the types and amounts of rates, charges and fees that apply to your service, and the terms related to the performance of the services, are as set forth in your written service agreement. If you are receiving service from us without a written service agreement, your services are provided pursuant to the terms on your invoice and this webpage. SUBJECT TO YOUR APPLICABLE SERVICE AGREEMENT OR UNLESS OTHERWISE AGREED, CTR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO INCREASE SERVICE RATES AND ALL FEES, CHARGES AND ASSESSMENTS UPON 30 DAYS PRIOR NOTICE, TO ADJUST FOR COST INCREASES OR TO ACHIEVE, AMONG OTHER THINGS, AN OPERATING MARGIN ACCEPTABLE TO CTR. Consent, if required, to any changes in service rates, fees, charges or assessments may be evidenced verbally, in writing or by the actions and practices of the parties, including payment of the invoiced amount. If you do not object in writing within 30 days of the invoice date, then you shall have conclusively agreed that such invoice is correct in all respects, whether paid or not.
