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Thursday, February 12, 2009
Another Obama nominee withdraws
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Republican Sen. Judd Gregg withdraws as Obama’s Commerce nominee. Apparently he was a round peg who wouldn’t fit in the square hole. To comment, go to the new blog site
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Two-thirds back torture investigation
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Almost two-thirds of AMericans support an investigation into allegations of torture by the Bush administration. It’s the latest post at the blog’s new home at http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/
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Growing public confidence bodes well for Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Polls suggest a slowly growing national confidence, boding well for the economy and Obama long term, at least if it can be sustained. It’s the latest post at the blog’s new home at http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/
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“Moving on up ….!”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Starting Thursday, all new posts and comments will appear at the blog’s new site at http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/
See y’all there; bring me a housewarming gift. I’m registered at Manuel’s Tavern.
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Georgia Power gets its way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia Power is a private, for-profit company, but with a very valuable distinction: It holds a government-issued, government-protected monopoly. Within its territory, no other company is allowed to sell electricity.
It’s a sweet arrangement. By barring competition, it effectively guarantees Georgia Power a double-digit profit year after year, even in times as hard as these.
Fortunately, drafters of the state Constitution did provide a check on the company’s monopoly by creating the state Public Service Commission.
The five-member PSC, elected by the people, has a competent, well-trained if sometimes overmatched staff to help it wade through the complex details of utility regulation. That’s important, because the decisions made by the PSC affect more Georgians more directly than most decisions made by the state Legislature.
Yet on Wednesday, the state Senate voted 38-16 to weaken the PSC’s oversight of Georgia Power. State senators —- with little or no expertise in utility management, and with no staff to call upon for advice —- decided that somehow they knew better than the PSC how to handle extremely complex technical questions about utility financing and ratemaking.
Of course, the senators weren’t entirely on their own in making that decision —- they had a little input from experts at Georgia Power. The company has more than 70 lobbyists registered to protect its interests —- roughly one lobbyist for every three legislators. In fact, the legislation in question, Senate Bill 31, was largely written by the company’s lobbyists and lawyers.
Even with all that manpower, the company still needed an actual legislator to sponsor its bill. The company chose state Sen. Don Balfour, a Republican from Gwinnett County who also happens to be chairman of the Senate Rules Committee. In that post, Balfour decides which bills are allowed to come to a vote on the Senate floor, which means other legislators don’t want to make him mad by opposing a bill that he sponsors.
Georgia Power, in other words, chose its man wisely.
The company has displayed a rather exquisite sense of timing as well. The Senate vote to strip the PSC of some of its decision-making power comes at the very moment the PSC is trying to exercise that authority in a case critical to Georgia Power.
In that case, the PSC is trying to decide whether electricity users in Georgia should be forced to start paying now for nuclear plants that won’t start generating power until 2016 at the earliest.
The company claims it’s a great deal for its customers; the PSC staff claims otherwise. But if SB 31 becomes law, the debate at the PSC becomes moot.
Clearly, Georgia Power intends to have its way. If it can’t intimidate the PSC into giving it what it wants, it will use its friends in the Legislature to get it anyway. And that show of raw political muscle becomes all the more impressive once you realize that it is absolutely unnecessary.
The Georgia PSC is not exactly a bulldog of utility regulation; four of its five members have long histories of voting in favor of Georgia Power, and at least two of its members have earned reputations as company lapdogs.
The PSC is also wrestling with another important issue involving Georgia Power’s proposed new reactors. The company claims that the runaway construction cost that halted the growth of nuclear power a generation ago is a thing of the past.
Nuclear power is now a mature technology, with standardized reactor designs and standardized regulation that greatly minimizes the risk of ballooning costs.
However, while offering such confident assurances, the company also absolutely refuses to accept any of the financial risk should its cost estimate of $6.4 billion for its share of the plants prove wrong. It insists that its customers bear the risk of cost overruns and that its shareholders be held immune.
It’s hard to blame company officials. Their job is to maximize profit and protect the best interests of their shareholders, and they do it well. They have convinced PSC members and legislators that what is good for Georgia Power is good for Georgia, and that’s not always true.
It is sometimes true; it is even often true. But it is not always true.
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