Help fight Progress Energy's Illegal rate hike!

[Dr.Phool]

My good friend Suzan Franks asked me to post this. Suzan ran for the State Senate last year against Charlie Dean. She's putting together a non-partisan coalition to fight this. There is a bill to stop this right now, but the republicans won't give it a committee hearing, so it's dead.

Suzan is a former NH school board member, who founded kindergarten in the state. She's also a former Nashua Alderman and NH State Legislator.

Get involved!


April 30, 2009

Dear Editor,
I agree that our need for electric power must be assured, but I object to the plan to finance the plant(s) in Levy County in Florida because it holds Florida’s 1.7M rate payers hostage to pay for the preconstruction costs, enabled by law s366.93. The proposed Nuclear Power Plant to be built by Progress Energy, a privately owned, operated, and stock holder supported electric corporation. It has been given what is referred to as a “Special Privilege” which is in violation of our State Constitution. Our legislators have not corrected this situation, and to add insult to injury, didn’t even hold a hearing on the bills filed, SB 1830 or companion HB 1101. There was no political will in our legislature to represent the people of Florida and strike down this unbearable law. It now appears, Tallahassee is broken.

The Florida State Constitution; Article III, Section 11 (which addresses Special Prohibited Laws; subsection (12) “There shall be no special law or general law of local application pertaining to: (a) … grant of privilege to a private corporation.” This speaks volumes, but unless we speak up to protect our Constitutional rights, and our rights as Floridians, do you think our elected representatives in Tallahassee will do it for us? I ask you; “Have they done it so far?” You know the answer to that one.

By their own admission, members of the legislature either didn’t read or understand the 193 page bill that gave Progress Energy that huge increase in our electric rates in January, including the extra 11+% we, the rate payers, were required to pay for the pre-construction costs for the plant in Levy County that may, or may not, ever be built in the first place! Many rate payers will be deceased before the plant would go online. And now Progress Energy is asking that we pay those unconstitutional costs as well as their new rationalizations20for more costs to be passed on to the rate payers…us, before the Public Service Commission.

Where is the outrage from our elected representatives? Why didn’t they try to repeal this huge boondoggle? Do we have to appeal this law to the Supreme Court for someone to pay attention?
Since Jan. 1, 2009, Progress Energy has collected from the 1.7M ratepayers, including all those on fixed income, the unemployed, and those retirees that will never have the opportunity to benefit from the new power plant generation of power in 20 years, a total in excess of $44 Million through the end of March. The money is going into the pockets of the greedy CEO (who receives $5M salary/year and lives in North Carolina plus the salary of the local CEO, Mr. Lyash, who seems obsessed with the stock holders reasonable rate of return), including the general stockholders of Progress Energy, in one of the worst economic times in our state history. The score thus far: Progress Energy Corporation 1…Rate Payers 0.

It is time to take action. We Floridians are being held hostage by this wrongfully enacted state law that has us paying for a nuclear plant in Levy County that we don’t know will ever be built. We must not sit by and abrogate our rights without making our voices heard.
This is our last best chance to stop the new, outrageous rate hike being proposed by Progress Energy.
The plan of attack is two-pronged.
The first is to call our local Commissioner on the Public Service Commission. Her name is Nancy Argenziano, and she lives in Dunnellon, was formerly our State Senator, but now she can be reached at her State Commissioner’s office at [phone]. She needs to hear from all of us to help her make the right decision, and stop the newly requested Progress Energy rate hike!

The second is to sign a petition sponsored by “Florida’s We The People” to block the rate hike as requested by Progress Energy because it is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. To sign the petition, please contact: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/a-protest-of-the-uncon... . The petitions will be delivered to the Governor, with the demand that he take action to uphold the Constitution and protect rate payers rights!
Let’s make our voices heard loud and clear!

Suzan Franks
Spokesperson for Florida’s We The People
652 E. Dakota Ct., Hernando, FL 34442
Tel: [phone]