Sonny Perdue signed the Senate Bill 31 into law on Tuesday, a legislation allowing Georgia Power to start charging customers for the cost of building two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle outside Augusta, many years before the plant is actually up and running.
Georgia Power began its nuclear reactor development in 1974 at Plant Vogtle and within 15 years the cost of construction skyrocketed from $680 million to $8.4 billion, nearly bankrupting the company. The new reactors will cost $6.4 billion and the energy giant would like to ensure they don’t find themselves in the same financial predicament.
Georgia Power is going to increase residential energy bills by $1.30 a month in 2011, $2.60 in 2012, and by 2017 by $9 a month to pay for some of the costs of the new development. The bill exempts big corporations from the rate hike, but not small businesses.
Usually a company builds this kind of construction from its own money. In this situation, it’s the customer that is making the investment, an investment that is rather risky taking under consideration what happened before with a similar construction. Atlanta finance guru, Clark Howard criticized the initiative saying Georgia Power wants to “pick your and my pocket.”
Sen. Don Balfour, R-Snellville, who introduced SB 31, said this proposal is actually saving people money, because Georgia Power will be able to save $300 million on interest fees, and the increase in rates is low and gradual. The two additional plants will also add jobs in Georgia, much needed at a time when unemployment rates are skyrocketing all over the state.
70 lobbyists were hired to push the legislation through the General Assembly, and it was signed without opposition from the Governor’s Office. Sonny Perdue is himself a former Georgia Power lobbyist.
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