Here's what you should do:Energy and Political Committee will be doing a PROGRAM for the public about this on March 21 at the Unitarian Chuch in downtown St. Pete. Please let me know if you are interested in participating in this effort. Learn more.
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Right now you and your neighbors should know that Progress Energy has slightly reduced the high rate increase of January, but it will certainly resume unless people like your neighbors speak up. Citizens protesting loudly can be very effective right now in helping to stop these "advance payments" for outdated nuclear technology. And paying for nuclear power is what this is all about. Lawmakers Primed To Debate Reforms On Electricity Costs--[article]
Here's what you should do:
CALL: CALL 1-800-342-3552.
ALL YOU NEED DO IS PRESS 2,
THEN A CUSTOMER SERVICE REP WILL ANSWER. TELL THEM YOU'D LIKE TO PROTEST PROGRESS ENERGY'S 25% INCREASE. THEY WILL ASK YOUR NAME & ZIP CODE - THAT'S IT!
YOU DON'T HAVE TO GIVE THEM YOUR NAME, BUT IT MAY BE BETTER TO DO SO.
THE SOONER YOU DO THIS THE BETTER. THEY HAVE HAD THOUSANDS OF CALLS ABOUT THIS INCREASE, AND EVERY CALL WILL BE COUNTED. THIS CALL WILL ONLY TAKE A COUPLE OF MINUTES OF YOUR TIME, BUT COULD SAVE YOU AN AVERAGE OF $50 OR MORE PER MONTH!
iN ADDITION, People should communicate their displeasure IN WRITING to their state legislators in the Florida Senate and House, and also to the Florida Public Service Commission.
USE MAIL and FAXES. Physical copies of complaints are best because legislators and their staff members can see the letters, postcards and faxes piling up. Each one could be a vote and they know it. Follow up with email and phone calls to reiterate your concerns.
Writers should demonstrate that they know the issues (read on) and iterate that it is unfair to be forced to pay for building privately owned power plants. Older people especially don't want to pay for something that they'll never be able to use, and they don't want to leave outdated technology... dirty and dangerous nuclear technology... for their children to clean up.
HERE'S HOW TO REACH THE PSC & YOUR LEGISLATORS:
"In most of north Pinellas, the senate district is 11 represented by State Senator Mike Fasano., and the State House district is 48 Represented by Peter Nehr. Locate state legislators' contact info by calling this number: 800-342-1827. On the internet go to this website and enter a zip code where requested in the lower left corner. The resulting page will provide senate and house district numbers, and links to your representatives' pages with contact addresses and fax numbers.
Public Service Commission info:
Florida Public Service Commission
2540 Shumard Oak Blvd.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0850
800-342-3552
The following Background & personal commentary was submitted by Bill Bucolo, Suncoast Sierra Club Political Chair. Bill can be reached at bbuc@me.com tel: 727-347-1829 3-1-09
As I see it, when investors and bankers loaned money for power company projects or bought financing bonds, they were paid back plus profit, plus there were rising stock values and dividends guaranteed by the state. Power companies are controlled monopolies because competition seemed impractical due to costs of operation, but supposedly government regulation prevented the monopolies from gouging customers or otherwise performing badly.
But now, as of 2009, it appears that our state law makers and the PSC are allowing the power companies to force customers to pay in advance for costs incurred to build nuclear plants because normal investors are no longer interested in financing nuclear power or coal. Both are too dirty and too dangerous. With this new arrangement in Florida, power companies take the money for free from customers... free because they don't pay interest on the money, and utility customers get no stocks or dividends, just higher rates. And even after costs are "recovered," customers will keep paying artificially high monthly power bills in perpetuity so power companies can continue to pay stock holders state guaranteed dividends (currently @12.75%).
How's THAT for a sweet deal, courtesy of power industry lobbyists, your Florida Legislature and the Public Service Commission?
It's all based on making profits. Everything else, including the outrageous costs and the dangers to the public and the environment of going nuclear (at a loss) in Florida's wetlands, comes second.
To reiterate: So while Progress Energy customers are being forced to pay for outdated dangerous nuke plants because investors are too smart to do it, company executives are hell bent on using nuclear energy, no matter how bad an investment. After all, they're guaranteed a profit out of customers' pockets, no matter how bad company executives' decisions.
The investment banks (even as loose as we now know they were) wouldn't trust that citizens around the country will continue to put up with goofy profit guarantees for outdated power sources in the face of more efficient power generation now on the horizon. So nationwide, the power industry has turned to state and local legislators and regulators like Florida's legislature and it's Public Service Commissioners (the PSC) to take the money (including enough for profits) in advance from customers, while those same customers will continue paying for current power use -including enough for generous dividends.
All across the nation the nuclear power industry is trying to get corporate friendly state legislatures like Florida's to give the OK to collect advance payments for future nuclear projects. The push is on now because they want in the door before it closes on them for good as everyone looks for Solar or other more efficient power.
You and your neighbors should understand that they are being made to pay in advance for outdated power technology which won't be ready to use for at least 10 to 15 more years, IF it is built.
Florida legislators allowed this to happen back in 2006 (senate bill 888, and again last year, house bill 7135, but one of the most effective things I know of that any individual can do is to make sure their state legislator and the PSC (Public Service Commission) know how unhappy people are about this rate increase and what it's for... and that it must be removed NOW... This session.
Under any circumstances we don't want nuclear power here while the rest of the developed world is running away from it. Furthermore, there's NO place to put the nuke wastes because Obama just put a stop to the Yucca Mountain waste depository.
And as for Solar and other renewables, if anyone tries to tell you Solar Power isn't ready yet, look to Germany and Japan, and elsewhere in the world where solar is hot, and governments and utilities are more concerned with providing good service than they are in making a guaranteed profit.
If you want to learn more about Solar possibilities in Florida, check out Florida Alliance for Renewable Energy (FARE), or just google: Solar, Florida.
Bill Bucolo
bbuc@me.com
tel: 727-347-1829