Letter to the Editor (revised)
Rick Martinez's July 4 article "Sticking it to rate-payers" is on the money, literally. If the Promote Renewable Energy/Baseload Generation bill passes the House, consumers could be forced to sign a blank check for financing nuclear and coal Construction Works in progress.
The CWIP part of the bill lacks research, fiscal notes or any analysis at all. If it existed, a study might include the history of nuclear and coal construction in North Carolina, like of the Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant. Progress Energy (then CP&L) projected a need for four reactors at $1.1 billion. Cost overruns, projection errors and delays resulted in a single $3.9 billion reactor, for which customers were forced to pay.
Notably, the CWIP part of the bill includes no cost caps to protect consumers. Utilities can repeatedly revise their costs upward, like they did with Shearon Harris, and customers would have to pay.
While the renewable energy and efficiency standard is economically smart and environmentally necessary, the utilities ransom -- a blank check for CWIP -- is unacceptable.
Shana Becker
Staff Attorney, N.C. Public Interest Research Group
Raleigh
