> who cares about the freaking date???

Uh, you? "...right before winter..." is not August 1st. And since the rate was announced in June, your complete surprise at the cost says more about how little you've paid attention to things than it does about Eversource.

I mean go ahead and bitch about the rate, a lot of us on this subreddit did in June and July but don't treat it as a surprise six months later.