Coal tax and a gas pipeline for Christmas?

This was an op-ed submission to the VDT, which didn’t respond. Today’s the GA PSC vote, so I’m blogging it now.

On Tuesday, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) wants to do for coal what the Florida PSC already did for that gas pipeline Sabal Trail wants to gash through here: raise utility customer rates!

Who wants a Christmas present of higher electricity rates and continued coal smoke, plus increased guaranteed profit for Georgia Power of 11.5%? They already raised rates each of the last three years for gas and nuclear plants not yet even built; why should we permit more rate hikes when the PSC votes December 17th? Last week’s Public Policy poll found 69% of Georgia voters oppose that rate hike.

Is a one-time payment enough to let a huge 36 inch fracked methane pipeline gash through our communities while Spectra Energy of Houston and FPL of Juno Beach, Florida profit forever, and your property values go down and your hazards go up?

Those FPL profits come from rate hikes on your cousins the Florida ratepayers. AARP opposes that, saying:

“Unreasonably High Utility Rates Endanger The Health And Wellbeing Of Older And Low Income Consumers”

FPL VP Pam Rauch, lobbying for that rate increase last year, spelled out it was for “natural gas facilities”, and “First is a new Clean Energy Center at Cape Canaveral”.

That one is already operational, and FPL wants to build more like it at Riviera Beach and Port Everglades and Martin County, Florida: that’s what the Sabal Trail gas is for.

Pam Rauch is also President of Florida Southeast Connection (FSC) that filed in November with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for a connecting pipeline on from Orlando to that gas plant in Martin County, Florida.

Georgia PSC’s proposed Georgia Power rate hike for coal plants is just as bad for our bank accounts and our elders’ health as Florida PSC’s gas pipe rate hike.

We heard Georgia Power admit this summer at Georgia PSC that they already have double the excess capacity needed to ensure reliable service in case of unexpected events.

What should Georgia Power and FPL do? They should get on with what their electric utility think tank Edison Electric Institute already told them back in January: distributed rooftop solar power is rapidly disrupting the century-old baseload capacity utility model. It’s time to stop building big coal and gas and nuclear plants, now that solar power is cheaper than any of those. The solar industry already employs more people than the coal industry, and also more than non-managerial oil and gas extraction. And solar can bring jobs right here to south Georgia and north Florida where we need them, while reducing electric bills, and keeping our air and water clean.

Let’s tell Georgia PSC that if it approves that rate hike December 17th, we’ll send them a big bag of charcoal at election time.

Monday at Clyattville Elementary (5-7:30PM) you can tell FERC in person what you think of that gas pipe FPL is smoking, [last chance open houses tonight Madison, FL or Kissimmee, FL] or comment online at ferc.gov.

John S. Quarterman is a Lowndes County landowner