POWER POLITICS: Big Nuclear's money grab

http://www.southernstudies.org/2009/03/power-politics-big-nuclears-money-grab.html

POWER POLITICS: Big Nuclear's money grab

Exercising its mighty political clout, Georgia Power succeeded last week in getting state lawmakers to approve a controversial bill that allows the investor-owned company to force ratepayers to pay upfront for nuclear reactors that haven't been built yet and that even changes the way government normally works to suit the electricity giant's whims.

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Indeed, prepaying for nuclear plants has backfired on ratepayers before. Some 30 years ago in the Carolinas, for example, Duke Power and the company now known as Progress Energy canceled nine nuclear plants that were underway, billing customers over $1 billion for facilities that were never built. In 1982, the N.C. legislature responded by banning CWIP -- but in 2007 it reversed the ban under heavy lobbying by the utilities, which represent one of the state's most powerful political forces.

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Clark Howard, a financial expert who hosts a popular syndicated money matters talk show based out of Atlanta's WSB-AM, pointed out to his listeners that Georgia Power had 70 lobbyists working the halls of the state House "trying to pick your and my pocket in a way that's absolutely disgusting." He continued:

"It is one of those times where the actual real effects of corruption are borne by you and me -- not indirectly, but immediately and directly."

Opponents of the legislation also objected to the fact that the CWIP issue was moved out of the state Public Service Commission, which was already debating the question of early construction charges. The PSC was scheduled to vote on CWIP this month, but last week's move by the legislature takes the matter out of its hands.

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