Tue Mar 05, 2019 8:20 am
No, not a scandal, per se, but close sometimes and yes, it is fair to not get back the same amount as you pay because the distribution costs are a large part of the overall price
But we do have our . . . . well, I guess maybe 'scandals' is the appropriate word built into what we pay over here in many cases. Electricity used to be 3 or 4 cents per kwh in the Pacific Northwest due to an abundance of hydroelectric power, Then the state of Washington decided to build a large nuclear power plant, not because Washington or even Oregon needed more capacity, but because they planned to sell the power to California where it was much harder to get permission to build nuclear plants. They spent billions getting the plant about 80% completed and then cancelled the project. That WHOOPS blunder doubled the cost of electricity for Washington residents almost overnight and it never went back down . . . . if the blunder is even paid for by now
We had a similar 'scandal' here in Mississippi more recently. The Southern Company which owns Mississippi Power, Alabama Power, Georgia Power and others decided to build a 'clean coal' plant which captured the CO2 so that it could then be sold for use in getting better yield from oil wells. They 'thought' they knew what they were doing . . . . the principal had been successfully tested on a smaller scale. It was a moderate sized plant (only 580 Mw) built near an almost endless supply of 'dirty' lignite coal. The plant itself burns gas and they were going to make the gas from the coal. If it had been built as a gas plant, it would have cost close to 1/10th of the eventual $6.7 Billion Dollars they spent. In the end, it didn't work and the plant now runs on natural gas. The problem? The extra capacity wasn't needed, we have other plants running at half output, but the idea was to prove the technology so they could then sell it to China!! Of course, the Southern Company didn't want to do this all on their dime, so the politicians they have in their hip pocket allowed them to raise prices on their existing customers who would never see a watt of power generated by the new plant, before the plant was built
Come to think of it, over here, your word 'scandal' pretty much does apply!!
Don
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