Posted on 12/10/2011 10:05:39 PM PST by Timber Rattler
BLUEFIELD, Va. — The Virginia State Corporation Commission announced Wednesday afternoon that it has approved a pair of rate increases for customers of Appalachian Power Co. – one related to a biennial base rate review, and the other meant to recover environmental expenses.
The combined increases amount to $85.1 million — a sum that will increase the monthly power bill for APCO’s Virginia customers by $7 per month, based on the average usage of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity.
“The important thing for our customers in Virginia to know is that these rate increases won’t take effect until February,” Todd Burns, APCO spokesman said. “Overall, our rates are down 10 percent on the year, and hopefully they’ll stay that way through February.”
Burns said that APCO intentionally scheduled the rate increase request to take effect in February to minimize the impact on customers. “We filed four rate increase requests in March,” Burns said. “The SCC granted a one-half percent renewable rate increase earlier this year. We still have one rate increase outstanding. We tried to structure this request so it wouldn’t hit our customers so hard.” Burns said that the rate increases are a result of increases in the cost of producing electricity.
“I was disappointed to hear that the SCC approved the rate increase,” State Delegate J.W. “Will” Morefield, R-Tazewell said. “I went to Abingdon, Va., to speak out against this rate increase. Over the past two years, I’ve made it a priority to tell the General Assembly the impact these rate increases have on the people of Southwest Virginia.”
Morefield said that the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s tighter controls on the coal industry and more stringent regulations on coal-fired power generation have had an impact on life in the region.
“I’ve been out on the streets talking to people who are struggling. Ultimately, we need to apply common sense principles on the state and federal levels to create meaningful and effective legislation,” Morefield said.
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“Morefield said that the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s tighter controls on the coal industry and more stringent regulations on coal-fired power generation have had an impact on life in the region.”
Virgina vote for Obama, now it’s payback time.
Northern and eastern Virginia won the Commonwealth for Obama, but Central and Southwest Virginia was solidly red, and that’s who APCO/AEP serve.
The day Hussein promised he would shut down the coal mining industry, I checked the United Mine Workers Assoc. website and guess what. The entire home page was a huge We Support Obama. It remained the same and the union voted him into office. Totally mindboggling. Of course, they’ve merely passed their promised penalty fee onto the customers.
“Northern and eastern Virginia won the Commonwealth for Obama, but Central and Southwest Virginia was solidly red, and that’s who APCO/AEP serve.”
Sorry to hear that. No doubt that’s the part of the state where you can’t find a toilet without Senator Byrd’s name on it.
Sorry...I was thinking of West Virginia.
Yea, I DEFINITELY know that Arlington and that area is hopeless when it comes to voting. I’ve drive I-81 a decent number of times - beautiful country and no way are those people are voting Obama.
Of course, the usual list of liberal advocate groups are fighting against the rate increases - demanding that Georgia Power continue to provide power at the same price and quantity even though their capacity to produce is being somewhat reduced (at the point of a gun). And yes, it is these same liberal advocacy groups that supported the plant shutdowns to begin with. Oh well, who is John Galt?
I believe with the shifts that we have witnessed in statewide elections since 2008, we will most definitely see a return to the GOP column for the Commonwealth of Virginia in the 2012 election, especially if Santorum wins the nod.
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