Commando, you're a "free market" guy. If you don't like the higher rates you can not use the service or go with something cheaper. Chop wood, change to propane, use solar or wind. You don't have to take this.

The free market is fine with me. These increases are because of government interference.

Commando, you're a "free market" guy. If you don't like the higher rates you can not use the service or go with something cheaper. Chop wood, change to propane, use solar or wind. You don't have to take this.

I'm pretty sure you're smarter than this.

I'm pretty sure you're smarter than this.

 

Sarcasm my friend.

How did you arrive at the 12 dollar a year figure?

 

I thought I read where the increase would be around a dollar a month

In my part of the state, wood or coal fueled home fireplaces are ubiquitous. I have no doubt that the air quality gains made at the power plant that efficiently burns coal to produce electricity with millions of dollars of filtration systems already in place, will be more than offset by greater home use of unfiltered wood and coal fires for heat throughout our region. It will not be long before the freedom to burn wood or coal at home for heat is regulated and possibly even outlawed. What do you think the whole Carbon Credit scam Al Gore was peddling was all about? Under Gore's masterplan, even a backyard charcoal grill or campfire for s'mores would have been assessed and taxed.

 

Meanwhile, China and India are growing their economies and infrastructure while filling the skies with tons more pollutants and greenhouse gasses than the US will ever produce.

 

Genius in action.

I've read this a few times. What are we assuming is the cause of the increase? Clean Water Act compliance?

I found an article that gives more detail.

 

http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/dec/16/ku-rates-to-see-a-965-percent-jump-by-2016/

 

What regulations are they complying with? When were these regulations created/enacted? Do we know?

I an on the fence in issues like this but what does drive me nuts is when these rate hikes go into affect by LG&E and KU, you are going to see the numerous "Corporate Greed as usual" idiots who know next to nothing about economics and business in general start screaming that LG&E and KU is fleecing the poor average Joe completely ignorant of the fact that LG&E and KU's rates are very regulated, the they cannot set rates to whatever they want, and the regulations try to make the revenue increases from these rate increases net as closely as possible to the cost of these upgrades to result in a net income neutral affect.

 

This article may touch on this but LG&E will be shutting down the Cane Run and Brown (I am pretty sure I read Brown) coal burning plants replacing them with I believe are combustible turbines which use mostly natural gas with a small amount of coal dust blended in. I believe the Cane Run and Brown plants are among the company's oldest plants compared to Mill Creek, Dixie, Ghent and others. Due to their old age, retrofitting them to comply with the new, stricker air quality standard as coal burnign plants would have been too costly so instead, 1.4 Billion (I think that is what I read) will be spent on the combustible turbines.

 

Brown and Cane Run burn quite a bit of coal from Eastern KY. I have to think this will affect coal prices, I hope the harm to the people of Eastern KY is minimal but fear it could be more.

For those that aren't ok with this, answer me this. Are you really comfortable living in a world where in the next 100 years the air quality will be so poor your great grandchildren won't have air to breath. This goes way beyond global warming, in cities with high smog rates asthma in children are at all time highs.

 

Hasn't air quality actually improved over the decades? Do not cities like LA have less smog than they did back in the 80's? I am pretty sure car emmissions have much more to do with smog than coal burning plants. Kentucky and West Virginia get the lion's share of their electricity from coal but smog really isn't an issue in either state. LA historically has had issues with smog but I believe less than a third of California's electricity comes from coal.

 

I am not trying to be arguementative but I am pretty sure air quality is improving rather than getting worse and I am all for continuing to improve air quality but I think there should always be cost versus benifit considerations taken. These mandated capital improvements which cost consumers quite a bit but I believe most are saying air quality improvements will minimal. For many of us, these increased utility costs will be an annoyance but for lower income people, they will have to make some very difficult decisions in the future. Yes I do realize cost versus benefit considerations are rarely considered by the goverment because if it costs too much, they just borrow more money increasing the public debt.