Floridians can't bear another rate hike

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We can't bear another rate hike With so much emphasis on the upcoming presidential election and various hurricanes swirling around, did you happen to catch the fact that Progress Energy Florida wants to raise our electric rates by a whopping 31 percent starting in January 2009?

Your $100 bill becomes $131, and your $300 bill becomes almost $400 overnight. Nice gift to us for the new year. We were also hoping for a break on our property taxes as well. According to my recent proposed tax notice for this year, that's definitely not happening. Merry Christmas!

Now, let's be honest here. We know the price of oil has been high, along with the price of natural gas and coal. We didn't know about the surprising hike in our bills due to the increased price of the nuclear power plant in Levy County. We were expecting a price increase, just not one this high.

What we do know is this: Floridians are hurting. Individuals are hurting, businesses are closing, restaurants are shutting their doors, private schools are scraping to get by, real estate and construction are in the doldrums. If Progress Energy hits customers with this kind of rate hike, it will just further devastate us and the local economy. Besides most people's mortgage/rent and car payments, the electric bill is their third biggest monthly payment. Raising it 31 percent in today's economy is just too much for people to handle.

I certainly implore the Public Service Commission to take a serious look at the proposed rate increase to see if it is truly warranted. It is my hope that they will decide the Florida consumer deserves a break, not an increase that will take us to the breaking point.

Besides, has anyone at Progress Energy noticed that the price of oil has actually gone down from a high of $147 per barrel to under $110 — down 25 percent from its high?

I am appalled by the attitude of the leader of Progress Energy when he comments that people will just have to get used to the high cost of electricity. It's probably fair to say that this 31 percent rate hike request should be entitled "The Hike of Arrogance."

What ever happened to the business model of searching for cost-cutting measures and innovative purchasing policies to offset the increased cost of doing business? Progress Energy's answer seems to be to simply pass it on to the consumer and let them figure out cost cutting measures for themselves.

If every business in our country took the approach of Progress no one would have any money left to spend. Progress needs to ask themselves how large companies like Home Depot and Wal-Mart, to name a couple, manage to lessen the impact of price increases on their customers.

I sincerely hope that state regulators toss this increase back to Progress and demand that they pare down costs to the minimum and then come back for relief. To do otherwise would be unconscionable.

Imagine that, Progress Energy wants to raise rates again. So what's new with that? This time it's for a supposed raise in fuel prices, and let us not forget about the $17-billion dollar money pit (nuclear plant) to supposedly help Floridians for their future power needs.

I am a realist: The cost of business is passed on to customers in one way or another. However, state regulators are not seeing the larger picture, if you ask me. Progress Energy wants to add additional dollars to each of our bills to avoid the company facing higher labor and materials cost down the road. How nice for them.

What if the cost overruns don't happen, what if the fuel cost drops dramatically over the next few years with the influx of new drilling and weakening global demand? Are we going to get a $34 average rebate per month? I wouldn't count on that if I were you.

Why doesn't Progress Energy look in their own backyard and reduce expenses? The consumer has already taken a huge hit with the rising economy. I hope the state regulators wake up and see this for what it is, less of a necessity and more of a pillaging of overwhelmed, overtaxed and fed up consumers!

Like many communities across the country, we have all felt the sting of globalization. I worry that things will get worse and the American economy will not keep growing if our energy costs continue to balloon as they have in recent years. Nationally, we have lost 3-million manufacturing jobs since 2000, owing in large part to the lower cost of doing business overseas.

It makes no sense that American energy resources in places like the Gulf of Mexico and off the southern Atlantic coast are off-limits. With gas still nearly $4 per gallon and oil prices around $110 per barrel, our elected leaders are doing nothing to drive energy costs down — and action is needed immediately to maintain the competitiveness of America's industrial sector.

Given the urgency of the situation, Congress must act, and quickly, to open up our offshore American energy resources.

Did you know our government has already leased more than 68-million acres that are ready to drill? Why are we even having a conversation about drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico ?

Lets stop giving in to the demands of giant oil companies and politicians who look after their own interests. Are we not tired of being conned and lied to? If we must drill, let's drill where we are already licensed to drill and stop this nonsense about expanded gulf drilling. And how about reining in the oil speculators? Perhaps that would help.

This is the perfect wake-up call for us to become more energy efficient and focus on clean renewable energy policies, to stop living in the past and to become the leaders the world looks up to once again. Let's discuss what's good for the many and not the few. This is no longer about just politics. This is about our survival.

Joe Maddon and our Tampa Bay Rays have given the bay area a taste of what it's like to have a baseball team good enough to make it to the postseason. Go Rays!

The St. Petersburg Times has questioned whether the bay area fans will support a major league team, i.e., low attendance at the Trop. Sunday's game brought out more than 32,000 fans to see a great major league team. Maybe the problem is the city of St. Petersburg's bush-league traffic control.

It would seem that Tropicana Field is ideally positioned, with its close proximity to the interstate and multiple one-way traffic arteries capable of funneling thousands of vehicles. Can someone explain why these roadways are suddenly bottle-necked into a single lane for fans entering the Trop? The result is long lines, short tempers and many a dinged bumper. This might explain why some folks choose to stay home.

If Tampa can move 70,000 fans into a Bucs game off of Dale Mabry, the sleepy little burg of St. Pete ought to be able to accommodate less than half that at the Trop.

The Rays are now one of the best teams in baseball. Our city planners need to step up to the plate and fix the game-day traffic problem.

Although Danny J. Collins ignored court orders time after time for failure to pay child support, it is my opinion that U.S. District Court Judge Steven Merryday should not have sentenced Collins to a year in federal prison unless it was established that Collins had no means of earning an income.

Collins appeared before Merryday with a check for $5,000 and promised another $10,000 payment after completing a construction job in the Washington, D.C., area. Merryday should have allowed Collins to complete this job and held him responsible for the support payment. Now Michelle Wilder may never see that money, which see needs to help support their 14-year-old son.

Authorities in Washington, D.C., should have been notified and Collins placed under their jurisdiction in a minimum security work release program so he could finish this job and make good on this payment.

But Collins' son and ex-wife are now going to be denied any further income for at least a year and we taxpayers will pay for his everyday upkeep while he sits in a federal prison not generating any income and paying nothing.

Comments on this article

by Tom	Sep 9, 2008 9:59 AM
Lori, You're right they are a monopoly which we the people limit the amount they can charge thus limiting their ability to expand. Thus we have power that most can afford.

by Lori	Sep 8, 2008 11:58 AM
Tom, Coke and Microsoft aren't monopolies. Progress Energy is. They have no competition. Consumers just can't buy another brand of electricity, because it's not available and alternatives aren't affordable for most. Hmmmm, I wonder why that is?

by deep thought	Sep 8, 2008 10:25 AM
hold them to what they tell us.you'll just have to make some adjustments in your lifestyle.but fpl adjust,cut out health care,cut salaries,things they do to us in public edu.where they gonna go really if we say no?

by Rachel	Sep 7, 2008 10:07 AM
As soon as they can (and can afford it) people are going to start getting solar and geo thermal and get off the grid for good; and say "thanks but no thanks" to the power companies!

by Tom	Sep 6, 2008 4:28 PM
It became standard business practice for the consumer to pay for the cost of capital expenditures when we limited their profit to 12.5% At that rate they cannot earn enough to expand. Coke make 28%, Microsoft makes 30% Progress is limited to 12.5%

by Kay	Sep 6, 2008 4:14 PM
Jack, wake up. This man only showed up with $5000 to try to save his own rear. The child is 14 years old, if he was serious about supporting him, it would have happened before now. D.C. wouldn't bother with him.

by kitty	Sep 6, 2008 3:02 PM
Phil Gramm is right - you people really are a bunch of whiners! And you're selfish too. Don't you realize Progress NEEDS this raise so they can continue to throw lavish parties for incoming/outgoing executives? <sarcasm off>

by Mark's right	Sep 6, 2008 2:48 PM
Mark is right. The police have made a difficult situation impossible. They block off all the main roads into the trop and funnel everyone down one street. Last game we went to, none of them knew what the one on the next corner was doing!

by Glenn	Sep 5, 2008 2:54 PM
Like I said before, when is the PSC going to have the spine to reign in Progress Energy before folks start moving out of Florida en masse. Before you know it, it's going to be cheaper to use generators at home, rather than the power company.

by Tom	Sep 5, 2008 2:54 PM
The "Drill here, drill now" folks seem to assume there's got to be oil wherever you drill. Sort of like Jed Clampett shootin' at some food. It doesn't work that way, folks. Lots of oil wells turn out to be dry-hole failures.

by kitty	Sep 5, 2008 1:37 PM
DM, dems serving in office in Florida are more rare than snow in Florida. Nope, this falls squarely into the laps of the rethugs who have held a solid majority in this state for at least the last 10 years.

by Mac	Sep 5, 2008 1:37 PM
While at the Honda Grand Prix last year, there were Progress Energy signs everywhere---they are a monopoly--why are they 'advertising', running up costs that are passed on to consumers. Something is seriously wrong with this picture!!!

by Joe	Sep 5, 2008 12:36 PM
Retirey snow transplant. Wake up ! You are not going to see oil below 90$a barrel ever again. Paying as you go isn't new. I rather pay for the nuke now than later.

by DM	Sep 5, 2008 11:58 AM
The Progress Energy Scam is allowed to happen because we the people keep electing the same Democrats and Republicans to office, the ones who are connected lawyers and such.Time for the citizen legislator to emerge. I know they just use common sense.

by Debbie	Sep 5, 2008 11:47 AM
I would like to know when it became standard business practice for the consumer to pay for the cost of capital expenditures? Progress Energy should pay for this like any other company. What is wrong with this picture people???

by John	Sep 5, 2008 6:36 AM
I agree, the traffic at a Rays game is horrible. I put the blame on the problems on the St. Pete police, they are horrible. What is so hard about directing traffic, and why do they sometimes close off certain roads. Somebody please investigate.