progress energy

Only in Mitt Romney's world where corporations are people does it all make sense.

This week the NC Justice Center, NC WARN and the NC Housing Coalition challenged the proposed Duke Energy rate hike settlement that the NC Utilities Commission Public Staff is supporting. The organizations are highlighting how unfair the proposal for a 7.21% rate increase is to residential and most business customers, because the rate allocation method is biased to accommodate energy hogging industries.

There is nothing, not one damn thing, to be gained by the citizens of North Carolina in the merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy.

And tip-toes around the answer.

Playing word games doesn't help with the public's trust issues:

In a report posted on the NRC website early Friday, the utility said this resulted in a condition that "significantly" degraded plant safety.

But "the safety significance of this event was minimal" because the Brunswick Nuclear control room operators took appropriate action to shut down the reactor when the elevated leakage was identified

I will sum up my opinion of this incident, and the crafty language used in this report, with two words: "Not cool." And the litany of previous problems is even less cool:

Reddy Kilowatt sez, "Paying taxes is for losers."

During an NC Utilities Commission hearing:

Duke's request includes a 17 percent hike for all residential customer classes. The largest group of those customers, however, would actually pay close to 20 percent more. Typical bills would rise about $18 a month beginning in February.

Like many reading this, I got my (legally required) notice from Duke the other day. When I saw the % increase for residents vs businesses, I said several bad words in a row, then shuffled them around and said them again. The suffering this will cause is incalculable, and should be summarily rejected by the Commission.

We the people of North Carolina should have Rob Schofield and Al Ripley negotiating on our behalf:

No one expects Duke, Progress or a new combined statewide monopoly to solve all of North Carolina's energy and poverty woes. The problems have been long in the making and will not be solved overnight. Still, the notion that North Carolina might allow such a huge and unprecedented event as a Duke-Progress merger to take place without requiring more of a regulated monopoly that exists to serve the public interest than a token, one-time contribution - say, 10 to 20 times more - is shocking.

Still no answer.

And a big chunk is coming out of your pocket:

The chief executives of Duke Energy and Progress Energy said this afternoon their companies plan to seek rate increases soon to meet a deadline to recover severance payments that will be paid to employees who lose their jobs as a result of the utilities' merger.

Now, I can see the stockholders thinking this is a good idea, but the NC Utilities Commission should have torn up this request on sight. If they allow this fleecing, the Commission should be disbanded. And maybe a little tarring and feathering to boot.

Jaw-dropping news, courtesy of Applied Rationality:

The chief executives of Duke Energy and Progress Energy said Tuesday that their companies will have to raise electricity rates to cover the cost of severance payments that will be paid to employees who lose their jobs as a result of the utilities' merger.

Two North Carolina-based electric utilities plan to merge, creating a company that will surpass the Southern Co. as the nation's largest power provider.

Duke Energy of Charlotte intends to buy Progress Energy of Raleigh in a $13.7 billion all-stock deal.

The new company -- which would have about 57 gigawatts of domestic generating capacity and the nation's largest nuclear fleet -- would be called Duke Energy and headquartered in Charlotte. The CEO would be Bill Johnson, who currently holds that position at Progress Energy, with current Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers staying on as board chair.

Duke currently supplies energy to about 4 million customers in the Carolinas, Kentucky, Ohio and Indiana, while Progress has about 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida.