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Nuclear corporate welfare in Florida

Florida Green Party Opposes Public Service Commission Approval Of Nuclear Cost Recovery For Utilities, Calling It A “A License To Steal“(  Michael Canney  Green Party of Florida (GPF) denounces the October 16 decision by the Public Service Commission allowing Progress Energy and Florida Power & Light to raise utility rates paid by their customers in order to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in so-called “nuclear cost recovery” funds.

Under an ill-conceived law approved by the Florida legislature in 2006 in Florida, private utility companies are allowed to collect funds, in the form of rate increases to their customers, to pay the advance costs for nuclear power plant construction. These funds can be collected even if the nuclear projects have not yet been licensed and approved by state and federal regulatory agencies, and if the projects are not approved.

If the nuclear plants are canceled by the utilities for any reason, the corporations can pocket the millions they have fleeced from their customers, all with permission from the state.”

Granting FPL and Progress Energy permission to raise utility rates to pay for risky and unnecessary nuclear plants is like giving them a license to steal,” said Michael Canney, GPF spokesperson and representative in a Petition to Intervene in the federal licensing process for the Levy County nuclear plant. “Nuclear cost recovery is a form of corporate welfare designed to “fast track” nuclear power development and guarantee industry profits at the expense of the public interest. The PSC has become a rubber stamp for the nuclear power industry.”…..

“Nuclear power is not clean, green or renewable, and it makes a mockery of Homeland Security, added Showen. “The truly secure and sane course of action for Florida is to put our resources into distributed rooftop solar. If the PSC had any real patriotic concern, it would have pulled the plug on nukes long ago.”

The GPF opposes the nuclear cost recovery scam as a form of private taxation that forces utility customers to invest millions in risky projects they may never see any benefit from.

“There should be a full investigation into the incestuous relationship between the PSC and the industries they are supposed to regulate,” said GPF co-chair Jayne King. “Greens believe state regulatory agencies should stop acting like lap dogs for greedy corporations and start protecting the public interest.”

2009-10-26 Florida Green Party Opposes Public Service Commission Approval Of Nuclear Cost Recovery For Utilities, Calling It A “A License To Steal”

October 29, 2009 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 1, business and costs, USA | antinuclear, nuclear, nuclear costs, nuclear spin