Electric Bills to Rise, Utility Leaders Warn
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By NEIL H. SIMON
Media General News Service
Published: May 7, 2008
WASHINGTON- Electricity bills face a double whammy this year: higher prices of natural gas and coal and pending climate-change legislation, leaders of electric cooperatives warned Tuesday.
In the nation’s capital for a National Rural Electric Cooperative Association conference and to lobby members of Congress, the CEOs said electricity costs will rise with natural gas and coal, which many power plants convert to electricity.
The cooperatives are working to change a bill sponsored by Sen. John Warner, R-Va., that they say relies on technology that’s unavailable.
Jackson Reasor, president and CEO of Old Dominion Electric Cooperative in Glen Allen, Va., said he wants Warner’s bill scaled back to be “practical, reasonable, and doable, and most importantly affordable.”
At the heart of the bill is a cap-and-trade system that would limit industry carbon emissions starting in 2012. Companies could buy or trade permits to allow excess emissions. Government revenue from such a system would be invested in clean-energy technologies.
A spokeswoman for Warner, Bronwyn Lance Chester, said government studies show money from a cap-and-trade system would make carbon-capturing technology commercially available by 2015.
Rural electric plants would be eligible for technology funds under the bill, she said. A Senate vote on the bill is scheduled June 2.
Old Dominion raised rates April 1 by roughly 4 percent and expects no further change until at least October, Reasor said.
“If prices continue to increase, we’re probably going to have to look at the possibility of another rate increase toward the end of the year,” Reasor said.
Using cleaner technology at their plants, as Warner’s bill would require, would cost too, industry leaders warned.
“Consumers have seen nothing as far as rate increases,” said Myron Rummel, president and CEO of Shenandoah Valley Electric Cooperative.
Consumers there have seen about a 15 percent increase in the past year. Rummel warned that if utilities have to buy new emission-lowering technology, consumers would pay the added cost.
“Nobody’s seen the full force of environmental legislation,” Rummel said.
Contact at Neil H. Simon at
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Reader Reactions
Posted by ( hogtown gal ) on May 11, 2008 at 5:10 pm
Truth Upsets, You are right about listening to our government’s lies, ie Bush’s lies. I am surprised that you bad mouthed the Repugs and Falwell. The Christian big businessmen are the ones who put Bush in office by telling all their followers to vote for him. I am also surprised that the Lynchburg newspaper printed your post because if the news is not about Falwell and Liberty University, there is no news. We used to have an interesting newspaper until all the LU grads started running the paper. Now it is more a LU student newspaper.
Posted by ( hogtown gal ) on May 10, 2008 at 11:21 am
Jouxster, You are right and I do want everything including electricity as cheap as possible. We have to sacrifice something to keep our country going. Some of the environmental rules are unnecessary and stupid. If we send all our suppliers overseas, how long before their government too will realize they are polluting the water and air, etc. and start regs? Also how long does the US businesses think the cheap labor overseas will last? We in the US could work cheaper too if we did not have to pay taxes, etc. I have no objections to nuclear hydro or even windmills to produce our energy. But they too will go sky high once our government and big business get on the bandwagon. Besides environmental costs, big CEO salaries are driving up costs of everything. People are no longer satisfied to make a living, they all want to have more and more and greed is going to destroy the US. NAFTA did nothing to help US and Bush is the worst President we have ever had and he is fast destroying our country. The Chinese and Arabs and Bush are vented on taking away the American Dream.
Electricity and energy used to be cheaper as did salaries and taxes. My point was that on the vacant house we own using the minimum electricity per month, the taxes, fees, etc. tacked onto the bill are more than the usage fee. No matter what alternative power we might go to, the government will always tax it and the utilities will tack on extra fees not to recap their investment but to earn huge profits. Stockholders are no longer interested in just earning a fair return on their investment, they want it all. Hillary is right and the US needs to get rid of OPEC as they are cheats and not doing what the organization was intended to do.
I feel sorry for young people like you because our country is headed for disaster and Bush is leading the way with his Repug buddies and the Arabs. He kisses up to the Chinese and they will bury the US before this is all over.
Posted by ( Truth Upsets ) on May 09, 2008 at 6:51 pm
Don’t worry about the electric bill. Just listen to the “Rapture” Preachers you’ll fly away as soon as things get really bad.
Rapture is a LIE. Made up by a mentally ill lady in Scotland in 1830.Two fake preachers John Nelson Darby and Edward Irvin were there and started preaching it. It has made fakes rich ever since.
It’s also works well for the Government it keeps people ignorant of the events leading up to the return of Jesus Christ. Becareful of the big Republican fakes like the Falwells,John Hagee,Tim Lahaye,etc. who have gained power and riches from teaching this Satanic Doctrine. Read God’s Holy Word not Tim Lahaye’s fictional Lies!
Posted by ( jouxster ) on May 09, 2008 at 9:24 am
Love it cause the bills are only going to go up. We manufacture nothing, our government wants to make energy 100% safe for all sources so we better get it from somewhere else (and let that country’s citizen face the danger.) I’m young and see how the old hippie generation want everything as cheap as possible ethics be dammed. We worry too much about correctness and having a mommy figure to protect us. Look at the younger generation and hope is falling. Our own newspaper prints out the faxes that are released by energy companies and government mouthpieces. Here’s a question.. How do we make it cheaper? Are other sources ie Hydro and nuclear good options? Is it safe? Is Government limiting or helping the energy companies? Go in depth (more than 1 paragraph.)
Posted by ( hogtown gal ) on May 08, 2008 at 2:11 pm
I have APCO but their rates are already too high. We own a vacant house and the electric rate for all the taxes and line usages and stuff they tack onto the bill is more than the general usage fee. We are being taxed to death!