(FL) State senators to utilities: Build nuclear power or risk loss of funding

[kristopher]

State senators to utilities: Build nuclear power or risk loss of funding
By Ivan Penn and Mary Ellen Klas, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau
Thursday, February 21, 2013 4:13pm


TALLAHASSEE — Fed up Tampa Bay area state senators want utilities to either start building nuclear power plants or lose a state law that allows them to charge customers for the plants in advance.

Duke Energy customers already are on the hook for $1.5 billion for a proposed $24 billion plant in Levy County that the utility has delayed for almost a decade and still has not committed to build. The utility gets to pocket about $150 million of that money.

..."There were no provisions to look out for the consumers," said Sen. John Legg, R-Lutz, one of the Senate bill's sponsors. "It has no accountability. It's an open-ended checkbook."

..."We do not support any changes to the law," said Mark Bubriski, an FPL spokesman. "Repealing the law would effectively kill all investment in new nuclear power for Florida, and we believe that would be very short-sighted policy."

More at: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/energy/state-senators-to-utilities-build-nuclear-power-or-risk-loss-of-funding/1276080

[RobertEarl]

1. Floridiots...

They could have had a PV.

They could have had a million PV.

Instead, big powerheads and big machine heads influence big politics pushing to make this big mistake.

Nuke power rules big politics. Anyone saying otherwise is radioactive.

[HooptieWagon]

2. A bit of background...

The law passed by the Fl legislature allows utilities to bill customers in advance for costs in building nuke plants, including a 10% profit. There is no constraint on the overall cost of the plant, nor a deadline for completion. Therefore, all utilities have to do is say they are going to build a plant, and they get a profit on all money spent, even if the project is later shelved.
The Duke Energy (formerly Progress Energy) plant is a good example. It was intially projected to cost $5 billion, now estimated costs have soared to $24 billion. There is no demonstrated need for the plant, yet customers have already shelled out $1.5 billion in costs, the company has made $150 million in profits, and many customers will be dead before the plant, if even built, produces its first kW of electricity. The Fl legislature simply gave the utilities a license to print money.

[RobertEarl]

3. Yes, but, not a license to print money

It is a tax. It gave them license to tax users.

Big nuke is so powerful they were given license to tax people. Big utilities are the same people who have brought us global warming. They run the show. The only thing more powerful than them is the sun.

[HooptieWagon]

4. Its both.

The customers are "taxed" the costs of building a power plant. The utilities get a 10% profit on the "tax" foisted off on consumers.

[kristopher]

5. And then there is the clusterf*&k that is Chrystal River

Crystal River Nuclear Plant, Owned By Duke Energy, Closing Due To Botched Repairs
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/05/crystal-river-nuclear-plant-duke-energy_n_2622576.html

"It's estimated the ratepayers will be out ... close to $4 billion as time goes on" according to state legislator Mike Fasano

[HooptieWagon]

6. Oh good lord.

Crystal River is a major fuck-up. What idiots...and yes, we're stuck with the bill, and nothing to show for it.

[bananas]

7. "Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg, who got elected on a platform to repeal the act, said..."

According to a related article posted in LBN on Thursday, this particular bill is from four Republican State Senators who may be trying to prevent complete repeal of the bill:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014405721

Four senators propose bill to modify nuke bill that has cost customers $1 billion
Source: Miami Herald

Barraged by a storm of bad press over the crippled Crystal River nuclear power plant, four Tampa-based state senators announced Thursday they will file legislation next week to require utility companies to surrender the profit they've collected from a nuclear cost recovery law if they abandon plans to build the nuclear plants.

<snip>

Rep. Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg, who got elected on a platform to repeal the act, said believes there is another reason the Senate plan stops short of repealing what he calls the “utility tax.”

“They are getting massive amounts of money,’’ he said.

By his count, the utility companies gave $1.5 million to legislative campaigns through the Republican Party of Florida in the last election and $500,000 to the Florida Democratic Party.

<snip>

Read more: http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2013/02/four-senators-propose-bill-to-modify-nuke-bill-that-has-cost-customers-1-billion.html