POWER BILLS ARE UNEVEN AMONG STATES

Which state's residents get the biggest shock from their electric bills? Alaska's, according to the University of Illinois Bureau of Economic and Business Research. New York residents paid the second highest rates, followed by dwellers in New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Connecticut. Illinois tops the Midwest; Florida, the South; and California, the West. Electric energy is cheapest in the water- or coal-rich Western states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Oregon.