The United States is among the most wasteful and energy inefficient countries on the planet. But God forbid anyone in leadership should push real policies to make cars more efficient…the automobile and gas industries treat such proposals as treason. And don’t let anyone in leadership do anything to advance energy efficient homes, businesses and renewable energy….the power companies (and gas industries) won’t hear of that and work to crush any sort of such heresy from being enacted.
In Florida, the power companies are regulated by the Powerful Public Service Commission. It’s a funny name, the Public Service Commission…because it doesn’t serve the public at all…it serves to protect and fatten the interests of the power companies who are (theoretically at least) regulated by the PSC. I say theoretically because they’re all just so cozy….and seemingly little concern for the people.
The most disgusting current example can be found in a recent article in the St. Petersburg Times. The bottom line is, consumers are dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the coffers of Progress Energy…it’s certain we will not see a kilowatt in payoff for these millions for decades….and the likelihood is that we won’t see power coming from this boondoggle ever. Here’s a little thought that I started thinking after watching the Fukishina reactor in Japan, then as I watched the two nuclear power plants that were in peril along the Mississippi river….once them toxic nuclear rods get spent…they gotta be bathed and cared for and watched over….until the end of times. No what happens when something really catastrophic happens and we don’t have power or fuel or anything at all in a region for a very long time? And isn’t it a national security issue to think about the risks of nuclear rods going uncared for?
But heck, that’s far off in the distance, totally speculative, end of the world kinda talk. (and that’ll never happen, right?) Let’s focus on what’s very real, happening in our back yard today thanks to your elected leaders and the corporations that own them:
For Progress Energy customers upset over paying about $5 a month in advance to build the proposed Levy County nuclear plant, just wait.
Within three years, that cost will more than quadruple and, by 2020, it will rise to almost $50 a month for the average Progress Energy customer.
That’s because as the plant draws closer to going online, bills for the most expensive construction costs will come due.
