Ga. legislators take ownership of nuke plants
You know who’s going to own those nuclear reactors that Georgia Power and other utilities want to build near Augusta?
In a legal sense, the utilities would own them. But in a political sense, state Sen. Don Balfour would own a good piece of them too, at least if Senate Bill 31 becomes law.
Written at the behest of Georgia Power, SB 31 would strip authority from the Public Service Commission, the body created to regulate utilities and make highly technical decisions about how to finance complex multibillion-dollar projects such as nuclear plants. Balfour, the sponsor of the bill, apparently believes that the interests of Georgia would be best served if such technical decisions are made by Waffle House executives, insurance salesmen, retired farmers and others serving in the state Legislature. Such people do have wisdom, of course. It just doesn’t generally extend to the intricacies of utility regulation.
The bill would also require Georgia Power customers to start paying interest and profits to Georgia Power shareholders long before the plants are built, and long before they produce a single kilowatt of electricity. And the bill curtails the ability of the PSC to protect Georgia Power customers in case the cost of the plants should increase substantially beyond current estimates.
By supporting passage of SB 31, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle and a majority of the state Senate have already joined Balfour in taking political ownership of those plants.
If Georgia Power’s costs —- now estimated at $6.4 billion —- do soar beyond expectations, jacking up electricity rates for Georgia families, Balfour, Cagle and others will get and deserve a good chunk of the blame.
Of course, Georgia Power has reassured legislators and the public that the huge cost overruns of the ’70s will not recur. Yes, they admit, a new nuclear plant being built in Finland is already 50 percent over budget and three years behind schedule, suggesting things haven’t changed much at all.
But they nonetheless argue that the risk of runaway costs is minimal thanks to changes in nuclear technology and regulation.
Yet when asked whether the company is willing to share in that supposedly minimal risk, even in return for potentially higher profit, the answer is a stern “no.” Georgia Power has said it will walk away from the project altogether if its shareholders are required to share in any of the risk of cost overruns.
That should raise a question among members of the House of Representatives, who vote next on SB 31. If they pass it, they too take political ownership of the plants, including the risk of substantial cost overruns. If things go wrong, the voters back home will want to know why they supported a bill that gave Georgia Power all the advantages, and their customers all the risk.
House members ought to ask themselves something else as well. The staff of the PSC has put out a technical assessment of SB 31 and its impact. Among other things, it warns —- stick with me here —- that “even if the Company has overearned on its revenue requirement, the Commission could not use those over-earnings to offset any under-recovery of the finance costs and would still have to allow ratepayers to be charged the full true-up amount.”
Did you follow that?
State legislators ought to read every word of that analysis before voting. If they comprehend it and still believe the bill is a good idea, they can vote with confidence that they are qualified to decide such matters.
However, if talk of overearnings being applied to under-recovery is outside their comfort zone, legislators ought to question the wisdom of substituting their judgment for that of the professionals and full-timers at the PSC. In the immortal words of Dirty Harry Callahan, “A man’s got to know his limitations.”
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101 comments Add your comment
AJC/DNC Management
February 26th, 2009
7:01 am
If Georgia Power’s costs —- now estimated at $6.4 billion —- do soar beyond expectations, jacking up electricity rates for Georgia families, Balfour, Cagle and others will get and deserve a good chunk of the blame.
Gee, I wonder what “cap and trade” will cost those Georgia families that you “love” so much.
AJC/DNC Management
February 26th, 2009
7:12 am
Man, I miss the old whiny Gloom and Doom Urinal, they used to moan about the Bush boom times but now all they have is unbridled optimism about the distant future-
2011 turnaround seen for Georgia
Yay, an economic turnaround in 2011, hooooray, uh, wait a minute, that’s two freaking years away.
What happened to hopeandchange?
GSU expert: Expect double-digit unemployment rate
I guess that was all just meaningless promises, as usual.
G
February 26th, 2009
7:38 am
Nuclear power is simply too expensive.
Wind, wave, solar power, electric cars, and geothermal heat pumps will do the job at a price we can afford and reverse global climate change.
And at the same time revive the DOA United States manufacturing sector.
Bud Wiser
February 26th, 2009
7:39 am
Taking their cue from Obama’s socialism stamp that he is putting on the banking, trading, and mortgage institutions, systematically absorbing each and every free enterprise system in this nation, in order to make us a ‘more perfect soviet socialist republic’, I suppose.
And it aint comin’ cheap. either: WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is sending Congress a budget Thursday that projects the government’s deficit for this year will soar to $1.75 trillion, reflecting efforts to pull the nation out of a deep recession and a severe financial crisis.
A senior administration official told The Associated Press that Obama’s $3 trillion-plus spending blueprint also asks Congress to raise taxes on the wealthy in 2011 and cut Medicare costs to provide health care for the uninsured.
So it also becomes time for the old folks, the ones who worked and paid taxes, paid into Medicare, their whole lives, to die, so that the young, the new, the ‘octamoms’ and her illegal pals who come to America for the freedom of registering as Democrats, to reap the socialistic rewards from a system to which they never have contributed, only taken.
Yes, this is truly the change we can count on for dam sure; its back to the days of slavery, only I have read considerably about Abraham Lincoln (who initially opposed freeing the slaves actually, but for argumentative and entertainment purposes, plus the fact that all the moonbats believe he was Messiah I), and Hussein Obama is no Abe Lincoln.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 26th, 2009
8:04 am
Waffle House executives, insurance salesmen, retired farmers and others serving in the state Legislature. Such people do have wisdom, of course.
Cite, please.
Oh, and Jay–could you add “Urinal” to the Official List of Words What Gets Your Post Eated?
Taxpayer
February 26th, 2009
8:07 am
Well, Jay, some of these elected ones [insert Republican name here] may not have a clue what they’re voting for or against but that little detail has not stopped them in the past. Besides, they probably figure that their faith and their family values will fill any voids in their knowledge base and see them through regardless of the decisions they make on behalf of we the people. Why else would you want a preacher to bless a doorway or other such silliness. (The exorcist was just a movie. It’s time to come out of the dark ages. We even have microscopes that allow us to “see” those pesky little killer bacteria and such — honest.) Anyway, upon further reflection, perhaps the Republicans in the US Congress are actually doing us all a favor by doing nothing. The next thing you know, they’ll be voting on the qualifications needed for the welders that assemble the stainless steel plumbing in these nuclear facilities. By the way, I wonder if the latest cost projections include new requirements for sustaining a hit from an airplane. It probably depends on the definition of “airplane” but it’s not a comedy.
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 26th, 2009
8:13 am
Georgia legislators let people poop in peanuts with impunity. (Say that 3 times fast). Now they are gonna administer nukular plants?
Good luck with that!
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 26th, 2009
8:18 am
Georgia Power knows that the folks under the gold dome can be bought real cheap, which is good for bizness.
(Stupid people work cheap.)
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 26th, 2009
8:24 am
In the interest of streamlining gummint administration and cutting costs, why doesn’t Southron Company stop running Georgia state gummint as a separate entity?
Brad Steal
February 26th, 2009
8:33 am
This seems to defy logic. That may be an understatement. It is dumfounding that our representatives would have any interest in pursuing this issue. It seems to be nothing but a job-securing power grab.
Thank you, Jay, for helping bring this to the public’s attention. Too bad the WING NUT MORONS who live to cast aspersions at Jay, the lib’rl media, gov’mt and the lib’rls, will dilute a real issue with tired hackneyed, humorless, worthless drivel.
Using the words “Oblahmi,” “urinal,” “Hussien” is not clever, ironic, novel and sure as hell not funny. They only identify the poster as a MORON. But these guys dispaly of stupidity make them the democrat’s secret weapon. When the wingnuts, morons, and AM radio types are the loudest, the current administration is the strongest.
B. Steal
Bud Wiser
February 26th, 2009
8:38 am
The democrats, drunk beyond reason now with power, and feeling above and beyond the zone of accountability, are showing their true feelings for their ‘fellow man’.
Obama appoints a string of tax cheats to Cabinet positions, one of whom actually gets confirmed.
Roland Burris, appointed to take Obama’s senate seat, now being looked at for possible connections and dealings with Blago’s brother, asked to resign by Dirty Dick Durbin, and refuses.
Eric Holder calls out America as “racial cowards.”
Labor Secretary Robert Reich (yes, as in 3rd Reich), puts in writing that new construction jobs coming from the stimulus package “should not go to white, male construction workers.” Normally a statement like that would get media coverage, an investigation and/or prosecution…..at least getting one’s arse fired…but no, not here.
And the Changling Master himself, Obama, ridicules all Republicans, by accusing them of taking their cues from Rush Limbaugh, as bombastic a self-promoter as there is, on the radio.
This is constructive?
This is bi-partisanship?
This is healing?
What a liar, and what a sad sackful of idiots that still support this inexperienced, socialistic, fraudulent shell of a man, a politician in the mold of modus operandi of party politics as usual. You should be shocked and ashamed of what you are seeing this man become, but you are not. You stupidity and rigidity do not allow you to admit you have made the most horrendous mistake in your lifetime, and that your children and grandchildren and possibly beyond will pay the price of your lack of vision.
RW-(the original)
February 26th, 2009
8:42 am
DB Nanny,
You may not have noticed but the pet name for Republicans that Jay told us was banned still comes shining through. Why don’t you just try to contribute rather than act as Jay’s w-wordy enforcer? Granted it’s difficult since I believe this is about the 18th time we’ve been given this exact same recycled article.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 26th, 2009
8:45 am
Labor Secretary Robert Reich (yes, as in 3rd Reich)
guess I can add “closet anti-Semite” to your list of character flaws, Bud.
Taxpayer
February 26th, 2009
8:46 am
I just love watching a Republican squirm. The only thing more entertaining is a whole bunch of squirming Republicans. Squirming and worrying about the reality that wars cost people and money and no regulations result in dead people and destruction of people’s lives. Dang, I sure am glad that I voted for Obama.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 26th, 2009
8:46 am
You may not have noticed but the pet name for Republicans that Jay told us was banned still comes shining through.
Actually, I noticed that “shit” was still coming through loud and clear. Not sure why.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 26th, 2009
8:48 am
yep. Still coming through. (Sorry for the vulgarity, Jay, actually you should probably delete it; I’d report it, but frankly the “Report this comment” function is pretty FUBAR, and I’ve already griped about the inability to link to an individual comment.)
DB, Gwinnettian
February 26th, 2009
8:50 am
“Why don’t you just try to contribute rather than act as Jay’s w-wordy enforcer?”
RW complainer, heal thyself. At least I did comment on the topic at hand already. You?
RW-(the original)
February 26th, 2009
8:50 am
DB,
That’s a different word, but since you fancy yourself as being somewhat net savvy you might have noticed they don’t have any censors for garden variety vulgarity and you should show the self discipline not to use it, especially since you’re crying to the host to ban words that someone else uses.
gttim
February 26th, 2009
8:51 am
Again, here you have stockholders trying to socialize risks and privatize profits. If a nuclear plant is such a good idea, GA Power stockholders should be willing to take the risk of investing in it. If it is not, don’t build it. The GOP is trying to ram through this huge giveaway of normal folks money to corporate interests again. How long do we have to allow this? Well, as long as idiots keep electing Republicans and DLC Democrats.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 26th, 2009
8:53 am
“you fancy yourself as being somewhat net savvy”
Cite, please.
(j/k)
gotta run, later, all.
RW-(the original)
February 26th, 2009
8:55 am
RW complainer, heal thyself. At least I did comment on the topic at hand already. You?
Your comment was Cite, please. My comment was that Jay was recycling old columns. Not much difference there.
By the way, if you want to test whether some word makes it to publication, but then ask to have it removed you might want to test it on a dead thread.
rcs
February 26th, 2009
8:58 am
“State legislators ought to read every word of that analysis before voting. If they comprehend it and still believe the bill is a good idea, they can vote with confidence that they are qualified to decide such matters.”
Jay, are you know proposing legislators read the bills before they pass? When I made that point about the Stimulus Bill, you said it was business as usual for them NOT to read the bills.
Why the sudden turn around?
Dave R
February 26th, 2009
9:13 am
First of all, I have to agree with Jay on this one (I’ll be throwing up later on).
However, Jay also does journalistic integrity a dishonest turn by not telling the whole story, and shading his text against Republicans. Since he only mentions two people involved with this bill, even if he doesn’t mention that they are both Republicans, he leads the reader to think that only Republicans were the bad guys on this.
Which I’m sure was his intention all along.
That attempt couldn’t be further from the truth.
In fact, 6 Democrats also voted for this idiocy, with two Democrats not voting at all. That means that 30% of available Democrat votes supported this bill as well. Sadly, it appears that only 2 Republican senators voted against this.
So before all you Kool-aid drinkers out there shout down the GOP side for this, save a little of that “love” for the 6 Dems that aided and abetted their Republican colleagues.
A pox on BOTH their houses.
Jay
February 26th, 2009
9:16 am
To RCS:
The difference is the difference between a three- or four-page analysis of policy and 1,000-plus pages of appropriations.
Taxpayer
February 26th, 2009
9:20 am
Then again, Jay, given that Republicans are in the pocket of big business, perhaps these Republicans know precisely what they’re doing without reading the first word — a little self-preservation at the expense of we the people, business as usual for the family values Republicans. If only we could just get them to value all families equally. This case is really no different from the US Republican representatives and their decision to vote no on the stimulus without even knowing, so they said, what was in the bill. They knew precisely what they were doing and it was, again, not a matter of looking out for we the people’s best interests.
Jay
February 26th, 2009
9:22 am
BUD, I don’t know who your source is for that bit about Robert Reich, but you might want to pass along the news that Reich was Labor secretary back in the CLINTON administration, which makes the suggestion that Obama ought to fire him rather difficult, wouldn’t you say?
Taxpayer
February 26th, 2009
9:23 am
There was also bi-partisan acceptance of the stimulus bill.
RW-(the original)
February 26th, 2009
9:26 am
To RCS:
The difference is the difference between a three- or four-page analysis of policy and 1,000-plus pages of appropriations.
So if the bill is bill is long enough and only deals with doling out $800,000,000,000.00 of our tax dollars then there’s no reason to read it???
If that’s Change We Can Believe In then every bill from here to eternity will be over a thousand pages.
Just heard that so far PresBO has spent 26 billion of our dollars every single day since he took office and that doesn’t take into account the nearly 4 trillion dollar budget he’s turning in today.
Say goodbye to America. We had a nice run.
RW-(the original)
February 26th, 2009
9:28 am
There was also bi-partisan acceptance of the stimulus bill.
There was more bipartisan denial of the porkulous bill than there was acceptance of it.
rcs
February 26th, 2009
9:30 am
It’s a matter of principle, not the number of pages. No legislator should vote on any bill unless they read and comprehend what they are voting for.
fearless fosdick
February 26th, 2009
9:34 am
Bud Wiser @ 8:38
Bud … Robert Reich WAS the scty of labor! For your information Hilda Solis is Obamas scty of labor.
Taxpayer
February 26th, 2009
9:36 am
I did not set the blog precedent for bi-partisan support. I’m simply going with the flow. Also, I find it odd that these Republicans did not read and/or were utterly ignorant of the content of the stimulus bill, apparently even to this date, yet they were able to pump out a list of needle in the haystack “pork” that surely had not simply risen to the top of those 1000 pages as though it were floating on water. I don’t need a clearer picture of the Republican’s game — sore losers.
sd
February 26th, 2009
9:38 am
What if we just used less power? I mean, maybe if we just turned off anything that we didn’t need. We could start by unplugging Vegas.
Real
February 26th, 2009
9:38 am
“Wind, wave, solar power, electric cars, and geothermal heat pumps will do the job at a price we can afford and reverse global climate change.”.
Spoken like a true bunny/tree hugger, green lib, NIMBY who will not accept science over perception!!!! This is the same mentality and ignorance that got PresBO selected and keeps Gore in the public limelight!!!
Redneck
February 26th, 2009
9:40 am
Not that I would crittersize a bunch of godly Republicans, mind you, but if I’m going to help pay for a power plant while it’s being built I want some stock in the co. that’s building it. Private cos. don’t ask customers to pay for their stores in advance. Well, neither should power cos. And after this atomic plant starts running I won’t own a penny’s worth of it. Where’s the Private Innerprize in that? You’re suppose to start robbing the customers after you’re set up and running, not before.
It’s just my idea but it’s very true. Have a good day everybody.
fed up
February 26th, 2009
9:41 am
The argument about the size of what is being read (the policy or the legislation) is lame. This president has spent/is spending more than Bush did in 8 years. Where’s the outrage?
cranky old man
February 26th, 2009
9:41 am
So what happens if I pay extra on my utility bills for however many years it takes to pay for this plant in advance, and then my employer transfers me to another state just before it is completed? Do I get a refund when I leave the state?
Observer
February 26th, 2009
9:44 am
Taxpayer – You’re actually buying into the notion that the (lack of) stimulus bill was bi-partisan?
Not a single Republican representative voted for it and only three Republican senators did. NOT A SINGLE Republican was invited into the conference committee debate on the final version of the bill. If you call that bi-partisanship, you are either truly ignorant or so blindly partisan that you will say and do anything that supports the cause of your party.
Hmmmm, upon further consideration, maybe you’re both ignorant AND blindly partisan.
Time to go back to work. Somebody has to pay for you to be able to sit in front of this blog all day.
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 26th, 2009
9:52 am
A big German “hail” and salute to our little buddy Herr Viser!
His comments waft through Bookman’s blog like a big storm front, reminding us of the true nature of GOP “conservatism”.
(holding my nose…)
Taxpayer
February 26th, 2009
9:54 am
Observer,
You cannot even handle basic math. So, manual labor is definitely where you should be. Now, run along little fella.
fearless fosdick
February 26th, 2009
9:54 am
BRAD–It wasn’t DB who made that ill-informed comment concerning Robert Reich..It was BUD WISER…..
Just clearing the air!
Brad Steal
February 26th, 2009
10:01 am
1000 apologies, DB. I got distracted during my rant and referenced you wildly incorrectly.
Observer
February 26th, 2009
10:06 am
I love it. I have an MBA in finance and I’m being lectured on basic math by an idiot who thinks the cost of the the $787 billion stimulus bill with 10% interest is only $866 billion.
Even using the discounted net present value argument presented yesterday, the cost is well north of a trillion dollars.
Face it – you are one of those people who likes to hold him or herself (sorry, I don’t which applies) out as an expert on all subjects but whose arguments rarely stand up to factual scrutiny.
TnGelding
February 26th, 2009
10:09 am
fed up
February 26th, 2009
9:41 am
He’s spending it here in the good ol’ USA. I don’t like it that much either, but since big business is teetering on bankruptcy what’s the alternative?
Bush submitted the first $2 trillion and the first $3 trillion budgets. The Gypper took the honors for the first trillion dollar one.
RW-(the original)
February 26th, 2009
10:10 am
Speaking of people that can’t handle simple math. After Obama got in the obligatory w-word about how he “inherited” a trillion dollar deficit he said he had identified two trillion in “savings” that would help cut the deficit in half in just four years.
God help us!
And Mr. President, please get over this “inherited” BS. You asked us for the job and we gave it to you. You were also a Senator in a Democrat run Congress while that deficit was being rung up and the biggest item contributing to it was TARP that you and your tax cheat Treasury Secretary were fully in favor of.
Taxpayer
February 26th, 2009
10:12 am
NRC proposes to amend its regulations with a new rule that would require
newly designed power reactor facilities to take into account the potential effects of
the impact of a large, commercial aircraft. The proposed rule would only affect
new reactor designs not previously certified by NRC. Westinghouse submitted
changes in the design of its AP1000 reactor to NRC on May 29, 2007, proposing to
line the inside and outside of the reactor’s concrete containment structure with steel
plates to increase resistance to aircraft penetration.
Designs that are intended to protect we the people cost money — big money — and someone has to pay. Why should it be private enterprise when Republicans can get we the people to pay upfront, way up front, even preemptive payments way upfront.
Taxpayer
February 26th, 2009
10:14 am
Well, I love it too. You want to compare your MBA to my three degrees. Let’s go for it, dude.
TnGelding
February 26th, 2009
10:15 am
Ga. Power is being unreasonable. Why not just let us pay the entire cost as construction progresses and issue us stock or credits for future bills when it comes online? To expect us to pay shareholder dividends is absurd.
Taxpayer
February 26th, 2009
10:19 am
Further, Idiot Observer, if you still cannot figure out how to multiply 787 by 1.1, then you need to go ask for a refund from whatever “college” sold you that bill of goods. Now, go toss your childish name-calling out somewhere else because you are not the only capable of that crap, Idiot.
Sorry, Jay.
TnGelding
February 26th, 2009
10:23 am
I must be the only uneducated one that drops in here occasionally.