{"id":6600,"date":"2013-11-09T07:23:51","date_gmt":"2013-11-09T12:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=6600"},"modified":"2013-11-09T07:27:34","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T12:27:34","slug":"florida-psc-terminates-levy-county-1-2-nukes-charges-duke-customers-settles-crystal-river-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/florida-psc-terminates-levy-county-1-2-nukes-charges-duke-customers-settles-crystal-river-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Florida PSC terminates Levy County 1 &amp; 2 nukes, charges Duke customers, settles Crystal River 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nrc.gov\/reactors\/new-reactors\/col\/levy.html\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nrc.gov\/info-finder\/reactor\/levy-newrx.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nRemember, Georgia,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/we-can-charge-you-even-if-its-cancelled-cwipped-georgia-power.html\"><br \/>\nGeorgia Power can continue to charge you for<br \/>\nPlant Vogtle 3 and 4 even after they&#8217;re canceled<\/a>,<br \/>\njust like Duke is doing for Levy County in Florida.<br \/>\nBeware: Duke&#8217;s idea of a replacement is<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/spectrabusters.org\/2013\/11\/03\/florida-psc-tentatively-approved-pipeline\/\"><br \/>\na natural gas plant<\/a> powered by a 36&#8243; pipeline on a 100&#8242; right of way<br \/>\ngashed through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/spectrabusters.org\/contact\/counties-and-cities\/florida-counties-and-cities\/\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3669\/10538993573_65196a90df_m.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nAnd while Duke customers will get refunds for permanently-closed Crystal River 3,<br \/>\nFL PSC also slid in a new tax:<br \/>\n&#8220;promotes community growth through economic development tariffs.&#8221;<br \/>\nA tariff is, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.investopedia.com\/terms\/t\/tariff.asp\">according to Investopedia<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nA tax imposed on imported goods and services. Tariffs are used to<br \/>\nrestrict trade, as they increase the price of imported goods and<br \/>\nservices, making them more expensive to consumers. They are one of<br \/>\nseveral tools available to shape trade policy.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nCurious how FL PSC redefines restraints on trade as promoting growth.<\/p>\n<p>\nFL PSC PR of 17 October 2013,<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.psc.state.fl.us\/home\/news\/index.aspx?id=1089\"><br \/>\nPSC Decides Revised Settlement Agreement for Duke Energy Florida, Inc.<\/a>,<!--more--><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>TALLAHASSEE &mdash; In a four to one vote, Florida&#8217;s Public Service<br \/>\nCommission (PSC) today approved a Revised and Restated Settlement<br \/>\nAgreement (Agreement) for Duke Energy Florida, Inc. (DEF) that<br \/>\nmaintains customer base rates through 2018, terminates plans for<br \/>\nDEF&#8217;s Levy County nuclear units 1 &#038; 2, and promotes community growth<br \/>\nthrough economic development tariffs.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n&ldquo;This Agreement benefits both residential and business<br \/>\ncustomers and will help grow the local economy,&rdquo; said PSC<br \/>\nChairman Ronald A. Bris\u00c3 . &ldquo;I am pleased that Florida&#8217;s Public<br \/>\nCounsel, White Springs Agriculture Chemicals, Inc., Florida<br \/>\nIndustrial Power Users Group, Florida Retail Federation, and DEF<br \/>\nagreed on difficult issues that provide long-term stability in the<br \/>\npublic&#8217;s interest.&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p>\nCommissioner Eduardo E. Balbis, who voted against the decision,<br \/>\nstated, &ldquo;We have another viable option that is already in<br \/>\nplace. Additionally, there are several critical unanswered questions<br \/>\nthat warrant additional review.&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nrc.gov\/info-finder\/reactor\/cr3.html\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none\" src=\"http:\/\/www.nrc.gov\/info-finder\/reactor\/cr.jpg\"><\/a><br \/>\nWhile the revised Agreement supersedes DEF&#8217;s current agreement,<br \/>\napproved last year, customer refunds contained in the 2012 agreement<br \/>\nremain, including $129 million this year, $139 million in 2014, $50<br \/>\nmillion in 2015, and $70 million in 2016. Customers will also<br \/>\nreceive a total refund of $835 million from insurance proceeds for<br \/>\nDEF&#8217;s retired Crystal River 3 (CR3) nuclear plant by the end of<br \/>\n2014.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nWhen an asset (such as a plant) is retired, the company has a right,<br \/>\nby law, to recover the remaining costs from its customers. Under the<br \/>\nrevised Agreement, recoverable costs for CR3 will be capped at $1.4<br \/>\nbillion, with the company&#8217;s stockholders covering the first $295<br \/>\nmillion and long repayment schedules also lowering costs to<br \/>\ncustomers. DEF will continue to collect fixed amounts, with no<br \/>\nincremental bill impact, for costs associated with its discontinued<br \/>\nLevy plant until approximately 2017.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nSince 2010, the PSC has opened several separate dockets to<br \/>\ncontinually analyze and review the company&#8217;s actions; PSC staff has<br \/>\nreviewed hundreds of thousands of pages of filings, from DEF, its<br \/>\ncontractors, and other parties; conducted numerous, extensive<br \/>\ndepositions; requested answers to hundreds of discovery questions;<br \/>\nand Commissioners have presided over eight hearings and status<br \/>\nconferences, where the company and expert witnesses provided<br \/>\ntestimony and evidence. Hundreds of customers have also provided<br \/>\ncomments that are included in each docket&#8217;s file, and as part of the<br \/>\nCommission&#8217;s transparent processes, all filings and transcripts of<br \/>\nCommission proceedings are available to the public on the PSC&#8217;s<br \/>\nwebsite, www.FloridaPSC.com.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nParties to the revised Agreement, filed with the Commission on<br \/>\nAugust 1, include DEF, the Office of Public Counsel, White Springs<br \/>\nAgriculture Chemicals, Inc., Florida Industrial Power Users Group,<br \/>\nand Florida Retail Federation.\n<\/p>\n<p>For additional information, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.floridapsc.com\/\">www.floridapsc.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\nFollow the PSC on Twitter, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/floridapsc\">@floridapsc<\/a>.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\n -jsq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Remember, Georgia, Georgia Power can continue to charge you for Plant Vogtle 3 and 4 even after they&#8217;re canceled, just like Duke is doing for Levy County in Florida. Beware: Duke&#8217;s idea of a replacement is a natural gas plant powered by a 36&#8243; pipeline on a 100&#8242; right of way gashed through Alabama, Georgia, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,18,2,6124,104,6687],"tags":[701,7222,143,7223,6996,8701,8708,8699,8702,370,12,7,562,8737,6076,107,6597,108,7009,60,6],"class_list":["post-6600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cwip","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-natural-gas-2","category-nuclear","category-pipeline-2","tag-crystal-river","tag-def","tag-duke-energy","tag-duke-energy-florida","tag-fl-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-lake","tag-levy-county","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-nuclear","tag-pipeline","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-sabal-trail-transmission","tag-southern-company","tag-tariff","tag-tax","tag-valdosta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6600"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6602,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6600\/revisions\/6602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}