"It is expected that Edwardsport IGCC will be online during 2012."
Here's a further paragraph on the Duke Energy plant from the same report:
"The construction of the Edwardsport IGCC has been clouded in controversy and legal troubles for both Duke Energy Indiana and the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission. Thus far, the legal issues have resulted in the firing of the second highest ranked executive for Duke Energy, the dismissal of the Chairman of the IURC, David Lott Hardy, and Hardy's subsequent indictment for three felony counts of official misconduct in cases concerning Duke Energy."[3]
So what are we to believe? Well, certainly not the arrogant attitude of Leonard Bentz, our PSC representative from So. Mississippi. I can't put my attitude toward this man into words that might appear anywhere in the press. And this is only a brief blog. There's much more to come!
Stop Kemper Coal by Thomas Baldwin and Occupy Biloxi
THE FINANCIAL DISASTER
This part has become clear and the MS Sierra Club has done an extraordinary job of bringing this to the forefront. It is so complicated with a web of political deceit that it is hard to simplify in a paper like this. But it is analogous on a smaller scale to what the big banks have been doing to us for hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. Basically these big corporations like the Southern Co. are trying to use their political power to drive the rest of us into total poverty and dependency by gaining control over our political institutions including our Executive and Legislative branches of government. This is the essence of corporate fascism. And folks, they're winning their war and especially in MS!
Exhibit: The Mississippi Power Kemper Coal Plant
Kemper was originally proposed as the grand state of the art "clean coal" power plant near Meridian, MS even outside the Miss. Power territory. When no other state wanted to build it, our former Governor Haley Barbour realized it was a great idea to serve his long term client, the Southern Co., and bring it to Mississippi. There was about 300 million dollars from the Department of Energy to build a clean coal facility somewhere and Barbour said we'll do it for you in MS. The Southern Co, Mr. Barbour and others thought it was a great idea. But the Southern Co., a large private company could not get private investments to supplement their plans to do this. Amazingly there was a bill in the Mississippi legislature in 2008 to allow public utilities like Miss. Power to charge their ratepayers to build a facility (whether it would come online or not) for the construction charges of a commercial private and experimental power plant. Governor Barbour quickly signed a bill in the state legislature to fund it and guess what happened? Lo and behold, a Kemper Coal Plant with hundreds of acres of a strip mine in Kemper County was designed.
It was touted as the numerous "jobs" it would produce. Yes, there were construction jobs for a couple or more years and they were supposed to be for those in MS. But that has not been the case. The permanent jobs created were to be about 260 or so and no one knew whether they would be transfers or even new jobs. But at the costs proposed for this plant, they would represent about 15 million dollars invested for each job with the "left overs" going to Miss. Power. Not bad, huh? Then there is the cost for each ratepayer (186,000) expected to pay for this monster. That's about 15-20 thousand dollars a piece.
But of course, Mr Bentz, our PSC Commissioner was obviously not good in math either. He has continuously touted what a great service he did by just authorizing Miss. Power to allow it's first step in increasing rates for electricity by 12% followed by an additional rate increase of 3% within a year. And this does not even include the rate increases which is anticipated by the additional one billion dollar bond issue to pay for cost overruns which could include an additional 5% cost increase in rates. In other words, within a year, the total cost increase of our electricity in So. MS could be at least 20% or nearly what Miss. Power requested in the first place!
The financial aspects of this picture are a big "duhhhh". Never has any alternative like the uses of solar, wind, renewable energy sources, or conservation been considered. This would create many more jobs and represent the future. But that's because the Southern Co. under the "leadership" of CEO Tom Fanning, and Miss. Power under the "leadership" of CEO Ed Day can't figure out how to make money over "controlling" the energy from the sun.
Oh my. Is this what our corporate world which is controlling our government has come to??
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