The value of a dollar will be worth more to those households during the time period of 2011-20?? of construction costs that nobody really believes will be fixed at the $6 billion GaPower is claiming it will cost them.

Any senator who voted for this because they believed the Time Value of Money argument should go out and re-fi their house for the shortest time period possible. You know what? I’ll betcha none of them will. Why? Because they KNOW the value of their current dollars and would rather finance for as long a period as they can to allow for the least amount they have to pay in fixed costs every month.

If you’re going to spend the coin on 37 different lobbyists, and I’m sure dedicate at least one or two of those to earned media, you may want to consider getting someone who actually can read a pulse of a blog before they continue to spam it with one new sockpuppet after another.

Note to sockpuppet(s):

Believe it or not, a lot of the folks on here actually do pay attention to what has been posted. It’s already been well established that not only can GA Power borrow money more cheaply and easily than any class of their rate payers, but that rating agencies have testified to the PSC that their rating will not change if this bill is not passed.

To repeatedly come on this blog and others and try to claim that GA Power might have trouble borrowing this money, while taking money from Georgia families and businesses that actually are having trouble borrowing money and/or making payements on money they’ve already borrowed, demonstrates that you are 1) Out of touch with the political climate, 2) Way out of touch with the day to day realities of your rate payers, and 3) Not worthy of this rate increase based on the ignorance and callousness you have demonstrated throughout this end-run of the PSC.

Note to members of the GA House:

Govern yourselves accordingly

http://www.georgiapower.com/pricing/pdf/2.10_R-16.pdf

…and it seems a little misleading. Before fees & taxes, I paid about 8.5 cents/kWh last month.

It is a regulated, publicly-owned utlity that is allowed to generate an approximate return of 11.5% on its assets. “Allowed” as in the government stipulates that as both a minimum AND a maximum ROA/ROE.

Publicly-owned in that it has dividend-receiving stockholders and interest-receiving bond holders.

In ANY other corporate entity out there, public or private, not one of them is guaranteed anything in terms of the minimum ROA they are allowed to have.

The “risk” for this company should be placed squarely on the backs of the shareholders/bondholders rather than the backs of residential ratepayers who are having enough of a challenge right now paying for their grits, much less contributing money to pay for Georgia Power’s shareholders’ future dividends.

Funny how Don Balfour so magnanimously seeks to exclude commercial and industrial users of electricity from having to foot the bill. Funny…funny…funny…

Jason. You are exactly right as was discovered the hard way with massive Georgia Power cost overruns with the first two units. The bigger the cost base, the greater the power rates “justified” There was rampant waste, even fraud, then.

After Georgia Power was forced to ‘eat’ $billions in cost overruns, they rammed a limitation through with respect to future projects, so they they are protected from their own malfeasance by the cap, with the liability of the public unlimited.

Now they want to be funded in advance.

The citizenry is raped at both ends.

With the $428 million property tax increase and this litle gem, peachpunditeers are getting the first glimpses of the Greenspan/Bush hyperinflation.

Wages for the average earner will never keep pace and the middle class will be decimated.

The difference is that Georgia Power’s numbers aren’t as advertised, as presented above; therefore Sen. Balfour’s comparison to a car loan is inaccurate.

The AJC points that Georgia Power has said they won’t do they project if they can’t have their proposal approved.

The problem here, something I was trying to let readers figure out on their own, is that Georgia Power has no real incentive to worry about cost overruns, nor complete the project on time. This represents a huge risk to ratepayers, who are assuming a lot of risk under SB 31 and in many cases; they can’t just switch utility providers. They just have to take it.

1) There was some dispute as to whether the language of the bill exempted all large commercial customers, or just those who participate in peak load/power shaving programs. If this bill exempts most commercial customers, it becomes a political liability for anyone who votes to raise prices only on retail consumers.

2) My understanding is that, during PSC discussions, the GA Power representatives were not open to suggestions, and pretty much said their design of the financing package was either going to be accepted by the PSC, or they wouldn’t build the new reactors. There are at least two PSC members who have a relationship with GA Power that makes you wonder if they work for them or for us. If GA Power is unwilling to listen and adapt to lawmakers and PSC concerns, then a “no” vote is required.

Yes, we are saving Georgia Power and the utility rate the cost of financing. However, at the same time, we are also forgoing the returns that we could get if we kept that same money.

Somehow, I imagine that whoever is financing GP can request a higher rate than we can find in the limited investment vehicles we have access to, but it is a legitimate concern to address.