nsiderAdvantage has learned that a continuation of what inside observers at the PSC say is an attitude “more reflective of the Democratically controlled congressional staffs in Washington” than a typical Georgia departmental staff may once again be leading towards a potentially nasty battle.At issue is Georgia Power’s request that it be allowed to have some $325 million in revenue recognized as just that – revenue – rather than being forced to utilize the amount towards “mothballing” out of date equipment. The mothball program was agreed to before the recession hit Georgia and the nation.
The “public interest advocacy staff”- which is, as one leading legislator noted, “notorious for trying to always justify its existence by fighting utilities at every corner” – may well land the members it advises into some hot political water. Because of the deep recession, Georgia Power is unlikely to reach the 10.25 percent minimum profit for either FY ’09 or FY ‘10. Georgia Power is allowed to file for a rate increase in the event the minimum profit level is reached.
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The “public interest advocacy staff”- which is, as one leading legislator noted, “notorious for trying to always justify its existence by fighting utilities at every corner”
As opposed to the legislators themselves, who justify their existence by going out of their way to force ratepayers to give utilities a “happy ending,” so to speak.
Once again, Erick is on the wrong side of what people really want. They WANT the PSC to obey the law. The advocacy staff is on the side of the consumers in not letting GA Power have a back-door rate hike without hearings, comments, etc.
And that one unnamed legislator? That one of the legislators that voted to change the law to let GA Power take money from consumers before a reactor was built… and possibly keep that money if the reactor never comes onstream?
I can’t wait until people go begging for energy. When people are robbed for a small propane tank or sack of coal………nether of which will power a saw to cut and haul the wood from a Forest or State Park.
Georgia doesn’t produce any raw fuels for energy except hydro, so 97 % is imported and will be heavily taxed by those States that have production.
Even power from Nukes will be taxed because we have no uranium [other than crushing Stone Mountain and some Granite Hugger will complain] [Our uranophane is only 44% compare to 88% for Pitchblend] , so it will cost 2-3 times more to mine. Making it cheaper to pay import tax.
“The costs of extracting the uranium and thorium from the Conway granite are estimated by workers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory to be less than $100/pound, or at most five to ten times the present costs of nuclear raw materials.”
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/state/state_energy_profiles.cfm?sid=GA
“The fissioning of 1 gram of U-235 releases 2.28 x 104 kw-hr of heat, which is equivalent to the heat of combustion of 3 tons of coal or of 13 barrels of oil. One pound of U-235 is equivalent to 1400 tons of coal or 6000 barrels of oil. Within narrow limits the same values are valid for U-238 and for thorium.”
Since 1970 the average US energy consumption per person has remaintained fairly steady at 330 Million btu per person only dipping ONCE to 312 Million btu in 1983. It peaked from 1995 to 2000 at 350 but we are back to 330-327 for 2007-2009.
We transfered manufacturing abroad so we consumed less in US.
The world average has increased from 63.7 in 1980 to 72.4 million BTU’s per person in 2006.
Gasoline today is $30 per million btu
Natural gas is $15 per million
Each kilowatt hour of electricity is 3412 btu so 293 x KwHr Price ~ $30
Hopefully you will begin to think in price per BTU.
Anyway the average US person [including babies and children] consumes $1,000 at present.
Due to inefficiencies in mix: heat, electric, vehicle, sales taxes, etc a single wage earner may spend $3,000 for a small family.
What happens when all the sources double:
Big wealth transfers from the middle and upper class to keep the poor from freezing.
Interesting things that people don’t contemplate.
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/reps/enduse/er01_us_tab1.html
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