Kemper Coal greatest transfer of wealth from customers to a monopoly –Brandon Presley, MS PSC

Too ambitious, technology untried, like Katrina and the BP oil spill: that’s Southern Company’s Kemper Coal plant, according to a Mississippi Public Service Commissioner.

Geoff Pender wrote for ClarionLedger.com yesterday, PSC member slams Miss. Power,

“This is the greatest transfer of wealth from customers to a monopoly in the history of the state of Mississippi,” [Brandon] Presley said. “Where are all these so-called conservatives on that?”

Maybe Mississippi, like Georgia, needs some conservation in its “conservatives”.

Presley said he is unchanged in his belief that the plant was too ambitious for the company, and the technology untried. But power company and other state officials have said Mississippi Power needs to diversify its sources of energy and not be too dependent on natural gas.

Yes, that’s what Southern Company CEO Thomas A. Fanning says, but he and SO and MS Power could just get on with solar power here in the southeast sunshine.

Hey, look! Another boondoggle, this one by Duke:

Edwardsport Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) Station Duke Energy is building a similar plant in Indiana. That plant, too, has seen delays and cost overruns, inflating its price from $1.9 billion to $3.5 billion, part of which ratepayers will cover with their utility bills.

Presley laid it out:

“What’s awful and outrageous is a senior citizen on the Coast having to split a pill in half so they can pay their power bill,” Presley said. “This is an area already hit by Katrina and the BP oil spill.”

“They want their monopoly status, but don’t want any, any, any responsibility to the rate-paying public … If this was such a wonderful idea, why didn’t they go to Wall Street and get the money instead of asking little old ladies and small businesses to put up the money?”

So why doesn’t he vote to cancel it?

-jsq