PSC approves Progress Energy's request to charge for nuke plants

The Florida Public Service Commission rejected arguments from environmentalists and clean-energy advocates and voted 3-1 today to approve a request by Progress Energy, and Florida Power & Light, o charge customers four new nuclear power plants that wouldn't generate any voltage until 2017.

Commissioner Nancy Argenziano, whom FPL lobbyist Associated Industries of Florida, accused of being biased and unethical, was the sole no vote.

The decision allows Progress Energy to charge customers customers $213 million, or $5.86 a month per 1,000 kilowatt hour, to upgrate its Crystal River nuclear power plant and build two new nuclear units in Levy County.

FPL will be allowed to raise $63 million and add 67 cents per 1,000 kilowatt hours to customer monthly bills to pay for the pre-construction costs of two nuclear units at FPL's Turkey Point Plant in Miami-Dade County and to add two new units to its St. Lucie County plant

The Florida Legislature authorized the commission to pass on the planning costs for its nuclear reactors to customers even before obtaining the federal licenses to build the plants. Environmentalists urge the commission to reject the plans, saying the state should focus on conservation measures that make the new nuclear plants unnecessary.

Renewable energy promoter, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, also noted that Florida's economic slowdown had "eliminated the need for four nuclear reactors on the scale that both Progress and FPL are proposing."

Comments

[lonewolf]

Florida's economic recovery will be delayed even more if these nuclear plants are the result of a fleecing of PE customers. I would not bet the farm that the 2 proposed nuclear plants in Levy county will be built. In fact the AP1000 by Westinghouse had not been given final design approval by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. How big a slap in the face of US workers that Westhinghouse is owned by Toshiba of Japan and the 2 reactors would be built in Japan and the generators in Germany.

[The partiality police]

and once again, Nancy shows that she is incapable of being impartial. i'm sure she had her mind made up well before today.

and if you missed it, Mary Ellen "bias is my middle name" Klas goes to the mat to defend Nancy at the AIF press conference.

http://newsserviceflorida.com/audio/10-15-09AIFPSCPRESSER.mp3?bcsi_scan_3C4285B81B028A97=0&bcsi_scan_filename=10-15-09AIFPSCPRESSER.mp3

[...]

The article could at least point out that if the companies were not allowed to pass the cost on to customers as the plant is being built, the rate increase for the cost of the plant would be passed through on the first day the the plant went operational and be astronomical compared to spreading it out over the next 8-10 years

[Glenn]

If the public is having to fund these nuke plants, then sound reasoning says we ought to be part owners of them. Another chapter in fleecing the public for funds that ought to come out of Progress Energy's profit margin. When is the state of Florida going to wake up to this blatant robbery. Is there noone in the PSC with any spine, save for one. And, of course, the one dissenter is crucified for standing up for the public's interest. You can bet if there was another power company in competition with Progress, our rates would be substantially lower...and that's a fact. Basically, the Florida PSC is killing us. People are having to decide whether to pay their power bill OR EAT. What a shame! The GREED by' this company goes far and wide. There is NOTHING democratic about this power company's way of doing business.

[NIMBY]

More importantly, what are they going to do with all the nuclear waste? This is what I'm really worried about and I haven't seen that addressed by anyone in Florida lately. Will the Everglades become the next Yucca mountain?

[huh?]

Thats the last straw. Tell me another business that can charge you for the equipment they use to create a product that they sell to you?

[true republican]

Well, well, well. Lets all thank the republicans on the board for this rate hike. We need to help big business every way we can. You people don't need the money, we do. It doesn't matter if you little voters don't like it because you have 2 choices. Move out of my state or pay more for your electricity. Too bad you you can't figure out which party looks out for the little guy. I'll give you a hint. It's not the republican party. Ah the smell of money as my stocks go up.Keep up the good work and vote in more republicans.

[Independent]

More nuclear energy!!! I'm proud of my State today! By the way "true Republican"...its a rate decrease from what we were paying. It will cost us $0.67 per month, but that is $1.48 less than what we paid per kwh this year.

[More solar too]

We should be going for more solar energy too. Do away with all the oil and natural gas so we can conserve and lower emissions.

[Verity]

4:36- ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Tell me you're not asking that as a serious question.

EVERY business can and does (and MUST) charge you for the equipment they use to make a product that they sell you! Are you completely ignorant? How else would they keep their doors open?

[lonewolf]

I would not bet the farm that the 2 proposed nuclear plants in levy county will be built.

[huh you are an idiot]

Of course other businesses can recover their costs (for equipment, labor and anything else) through the prices they charge customers. And of course they do because they are in business to make money. Duh.

[Blue Swan]

Back in the good old days, in a state like Florida, utilities could just go ahead and built stuff like nukes when they wanted to.

But now, from these comments, it seems like every state is full of buttinskis that have to drag their feet on every issue.

[William Norris]

While it will be cheaper for the rate payor in the long run, Ms. Klas misses the point. In using the less expensive pay as you go approach, Progress gets to remove the risk to its stock holders and put it on the rate payor. While that may not have an immediate effect, it is something to consider when the PSC determines the net return the stockholders are entitled to in future rate cases. Whether it will be or not (since the media has missed the point) remains to be seen.
Perhaps someone with more economic training should be writing these stories.

[notsosmart]

I am thinking all PE customers should be the owners of the new power plant AND by default gain ownership of the existing facility once the new power plant goes into production. We are buying out the stockholders are we not?
Then as an owner of the new Levy county facility, I think all PE customers ought to start looking for an alternate entity to run OUR new power plant! We will have all the rights to do so as I see it. We are paying for the plants construction are we not? We can identify the amount of money you and I are paying which is no different than a stockholder buying shares in PE is it not. Therefore, I am suggesting once we get the new facility built with OUR money, we should immediately put the entity we choose to operate it in charge of OUR facility.
BTW the state has no reason to interfere with this pay as you go decision because the state will gain the state and local taxes that it will tack on to the upfront charges that the bozos at the PSC allowed. If stockholders funded the construction, the funding is not taxable. In this case, all of the funding is taxable. Something is wrong with this picture.

[Wake up, voters.]

Corporate welfare. Republicans love corporate welfare. GOP is the party of corporatists. It's "We the People" vs the Corporations. Believe it.

[Truth teller]

SCREWED AGAIN BY THE CROOKED ON THE TAKE PSC. WHEN WILL OUR so called for the public politicians DO SMETHING ABOUT IT. OH I FORGOT THEY GET CAMPAIGN DOLLARS TOO. WAKE UP ! YOU WILL ALL BE OUT NEXT ELECTION.

[Truth teller]

I already paid 70$ more last month for the same kwhs as a year ago. 350$. how many more hikes do they get PSC?

[Thomas Saporito]

The State of Florida does not need two more nuclear power plants intended by FPL. Solar power is the future of Florida and I have declared my candidacy for the Office of Governor to make Florida the nation's leader in renewable energy sources. Please download a voter petition at www.GOVERNORSAPORITO.com and give me an opportunity to protect our environment for your children.

[You're brain washed]

As a former plant manager for 20 years I purchased millions of dollars of equipment but never passed the cost on the our customers. The new equipment was purchased to make our products faster and cheaper so we'd be able to reduce our manufacturing costs thereby offering our produce to our customers at a competitive price and at times at a lower price. That is what upgrades, new equipment and new plants are suppost to do, You people have been brain washed into thinking something different. The cost of improvements comes out of the companies operating costs by way of capital outlay and improvements. Charging your customers for new equipment or saying the cost has to be passed to the customers is just bull. If that were the case why not just keep old plants and equipment on line and not raise rates and prices?

[John Russell, MS/ARNP, MBA Health Systems Mgt.]

As I predicted in my presentation to the PSC several months ago, they did vote in favor of Progress Energy and AGAINST consumers!

Video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffapnxdNqIM

I am acquainted with a gentleman who has worked in these Nuke plants for many years and whose bones are crumbling potentially from radiation exposure.

He tells me that these plants were designed to operate for 30 years and then to be shut down because the concrete that encases them "becomes HOT" after that much time has elapsed, meaning that the plant itself becomes radioactive.

There are plants over 40 years old still in operation... If what my friend says is true, then is the public welfare being threatened by the continued operation of these older plants?

Nuke plants had their time and are now dinosaurs technologically. Progress Energy and FPL want us to believe that in the time that it takes for this plant, were it to be built, to come on-line (Approximately 2028), that alternative energy sources will remain static technologically speaking.

The true rationale behind the nuclear plant is that given the HUGE MULTI-BILLION Dollar investment in the plant, other technologies will be crowded out economically.

The goal is to prevent transition to DE-Centralized power generation and Distribution and in so doing maintain the STATUS QUO.

IN THE EVENT THAT THIS BOONDOGGLE ACTUALLY IS BUILT? PE keeps the $ collected from customers either way. A NICE deal purchased with campaign contributions which is the fundamental problem from which all these others arise.

Corporate Control over our political system through the campaign contributions of their lobbyists IS the #1 problem and citizens need to rise up and change the system before it is too late.

[Goin' off the grid]

Let me get this straight.

A private, yet government regulated, company can charge me in advance for services not yet offered regardless of whether or not, I, as a customer wish to-at any time in the near or distant future, want to purhase these services?!?

Did I get that right?

[Paul D. Harvill]

What is their answer to the storage of so much highly radioactive waste?

[Tom]

With this vote, the lame ducks on the Public Service Commission have done the public a huge disservice. Of course, the reason they are lame ducks is because they were found to be serving the interests of the utilities by which they will no doubt soon be employed.

[Tom]

Progress Energy and FPL cannot raise private capital to fund their nuclear plants because the credit market has determined them to be too risky an investment. Their solution? Get their friends in the State Legislature to pass a law requiring ratepayers to give them hundreds of millions of dollars in advance. The insurance industry also has determined that nuclear plants are too risky an investment. The solution? Lobby Congress to keep renewing the Price-Anderson Act, which makes taxpayers assume major liability for accidents. Nuclear plants continuously generate waste products that remain deadly for tens of thousands of years, requiring hugely expensive storage, monitoring, and guarding. The solution? Get Congress to pass a law requiring the federal government to take full responsibility for it (our tax dollars again). Nuclear power is the most egregious example of corporate welfare in existence, and would never survive in a free market. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are better investments, but first we must change the way our utilities and our governments do business (Gainesville Regional Utilities provides a good example).

[Verity]

Okay, so we can't drill our own oil, we can't build coal plants and Tom thinks we shouldn't have "nukular" so what are we to do? Quit taking hot baths and sit at home in the dark?

If you want an example of "corporate welfare" it isn't nuclear, but solar and wind!

[John Russell, MS/ARNP, MBA Health Systems Mgt.]

Tom has it ABSOLUTELy NAILED! Verity is stuck in the 1950's! Watch this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPKxz3dVDq4&feature=response_watch

[Tom]

Perhaps Verity will join me in calling for the creation of a level playing field for the entire energy industry, by eliminating all forms of subsidies for all forms of energy, and requiring energy companies to bear the costs of correcting any environmental damage their operations cause.