My Fellow Kentuckians, don’t forget that Mitch McConnell wants to do to TVA what he’s already done to Wall Street
Matt Gunterman September 30th, 2008
Now that we’re all seeing the sour fruits of Sen. Mitch McConnell’s two favorite things: GREED and DEREGULATION, let’s just all remember that McConnell has been pushing for some time now to deregulate TVA.
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[Click here to read more about Mitch McConnell's efforts to give more money to rich fat cats by raising your grandmother's electric bill so that she'll freeze to death this winter and then won't need Medicare or Social Security so that he can give big tax cuts to more fat cats.]
So, my fellow Kentuckians, just imagine that world: just as the economy tanks and inflation takes off — your utility bill goes sky high, too. All thanks to the Mitch McConnell brand of deregulation.
Mitch has already gotten politically rich off the money poured into his coffers from big energy corportations. Here’s how it will work if McConnell gets his way: The big energy fat cats will take the little man’s money, the little man will hurt, Fancy Mitch McConnell will cry crocodile tears, they’ll slap some fines on the companies of the fat cats — the cost of which will be passed onto the little man through even higher rates — and the fat cats go off to vacation in their fourth home on a little island in the Pacific (only having four homes, remember makes the fat cat only half as rich as Old Fart Face John McCain).
Tennessee governor knocks senators’ plan to open TVA grid wider for competitive use
Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander last week strongly criticized legislation introduced by two Kentucky senators that would partially open up the Tennessee Valley Authority’s transmission grid.
Kentucky’s two US senators, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and fellow Republican Jim Bunning, introduced legislation March 13 that would allow TVA distributors to buy power outside the federal power producers’ service area. The bill would give TVA’s customers access to more affordable electricity, McConnell said.
“It’s time to hold TVA accountable,” McConnell said.
Alexander, also a Republican, called the bill “short-sighted and misdirected,” by putting TVA on a path toward deregulation, privatization and the sale of its assets.
“Since Congress authorized wholesale deregulation, I have yet to find one single instance in which [it] has resulted in lower prices,” the governor said.
The bill defines the rights of two classes of distributors, those who have chosen to leave the TVA system and those who plan to stay.
Five Kentucky distributors and one Tennessee distributor notified TVA that they would leave the system to find other sources of power. Three rescinded their notice of termination when TVA established a deadline, after which they would be required to pay a hefty reintegration fee.
The legislation would give TVA distributors the right to buy a portion of their power from TVA and partial service from others. “For some customers it may make sense to get some power from TVA and some power from another generator,” Bunning said.
The amount bought from outside generators could exceed TVA’s annual load growth, however.
It also would give distributors who have chosen to leave the system access to TVA transmission and also allow those utilities to purchase partial service from TVA. It would prohibit TVA from charging exiting distributors stranded costs and give them the right to retain access to Southeaster Power Administration electricity. It also would allow exiting distributors the option of rescinding their notice of termination without being charged a reintegration fee.
“This legislation would put their rights into law,” Bunning said.
TVA is not sure how the proposed legislation would achieve the senators’ objective, said John Moulton, a TVA spokesman. “They would have to pay higher prevailing market rates for power,” he said. The bill also appears to penalize distributors that remain with TVA. “It would force TVA to continue to invest in generation so it could be the supplier of last resort for distributors that leave. That would increase costs for those who stay,” Moulton said.
The bill would give Federal Energy Regulatory Commission the ability to review TVA contracts and hold them to the same standard that applies to other utilities.
“This legislation does not mandate contract language, It simply requires TVA to negotiate theses services in good faith,” Bunning said.
It would require TVA to develop a plan for selling ownership interest in its generation facilities to its customers.
The bill requests the General Accountability Office to study the possibility of privatizing TVA and to study TVA’s $25 billion debt.
- Mitch McConnell
- Comments(7)
Funny there’s no mention of TVA’s whopping rate increase effective October 1, largest in 50 years.
But there’s no PSC or any legislative body in Kentucky or in any of the six other states under TVA’s mandated rule that can reduce that increase.
I agree with your senators - TVA is anti-competitive and should be abolished.
Ernest Norsworthy
emnorsworthy@earthlink.net
http://norsworthyopinion.com
Yep we have seen how deregulation has help us out !!
just about out of everything
Don’t let McConnell deregulate anything else. You see how he works, it never has worked out for the working class. I wouldn’t let him dog sit for me.
When the greedy and dishonest are deregulated corruption becomes the law of the land. If you will remember all that Mitch McConnell and Henry Paulson can talk about is the developing economies of China and India. Because of this we are paying in the neighborhood of $4.00 a gallon for gasoline. Maybe Mitch should move to China or India so we can elect an American to represent us. The TVA has worked just fine for many years. Mitch is up to no good. If the TVA is broken up and sold off the McConnell greed factor will be introduced and eventually the price of electricity for many rural customers will skyrocket. This process may take many years. NEVER, NEVER TRUST UN-AMERICAN McConnell.
Matt, you don’t know anything about this issue. TVA is currently unregulated and always has been, did you know that? TVA’s board has full and absolute authority to set the rates it charges its distributor customers with their decisions not being subject to review by any state’s public service commission or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which do oversee privately owned utility companies.
What McConnell (and Bunning) have been pushing for years is that distributors currently served by TVA have an option to be served by another utility if they can get a better rate. Currently, under the “fence” provisions of the TVA Act, no outside utility can sell electricity into the area that has been reserved to TVA. The federal agency has a monopoly and its distributors are basically hostage to whatever price TVA sets. Several distributors have noticed over the last ten years or so that they could get cheaper wholesale power from neighboring investor owned utilities than from TVA. The bill would just give them a mechanism to pursue that option in the interests of their ratepayers-both homeowners and industry. It is no secret TVA has some of the highest cost electricity in the southeast, an area typically known for having low cost power. The Tennessee governor whether intentionally or not, is confusing the McConnell-Bunning proposal with the broader national issue of deregulation of the electric industry. They are not the same thing.
To say McConnell is responsible for the economic crisis because overall he’s against big government is ignorant.
Republicans were the ones who repeatedly called for MORE REGULATION over the subprime lending market and the government sponsored enterprises like Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae but it was the DEMOCRATS who opposed it because they thought it would means less loans for people.
Bush has been pushing for regulation since 2001. Now, I realize most people reading this hate Bush with a passion and give him credit even when he deserves it, but here’s a list of times Bush advocated for more regulation. Please read it and learn. There’s really nothing wrong with that.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080919-15.html
McCain also co-sponsored a bill in 2005 with S. 190 in the 109th Congress. It was called the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act. Go to thomas.loc.gov and search the 109th Congress for S.190.
Obama and Durbin pushed for one in 2007, but it was too late by then because the bubble had already been created and they weren’t even serious about it. Why do I say they weren’t even serious about it? Well by that time, Obama was getting his economic advice from Frank Raines the former CEO of Fannie Mae who got fired from that company in 2004.
Post this. I dare you.
On the link http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080919-15.html I see a lot of References to Greg Mankiw. Wasn’t he the scum bag that said that outsourcing jobs to foreign countries was just another form of trade? The reason that many people could not pay their mortgages was because their jobs were sent to China and India. And I guess that we won’t mention that Elaine Chao, the Secretary of Labor, in the summer of 2007 said that the United States workers have hygiene problems and need anger management courses will we? Oh yes, by the way Elaine Chao was born in Taiwan and her father, James is in the business to export raw materials to Communist China, but we won’t mention that will we? And how about the campaign for the Whitehouse of 2004 when George Bush said that something was wrong because minorities could not afford housing and this needed to be fixed. It was “fixed” through predatory lending practices by mortgage brokers, hidden interest rate increases and balloon payments. All George Bush can do is hand my tax dollars and the economy of my country to foreign nations. This is why we are in the shape that we are in. George Bush, and Mitch McConnell are un-American trash and liars. I wouldn’t trust ANYTHING that is on the Whitehouse.gov website. While the Democrats and Republicans share the blame in this economic mess, George Bush went along with the cover ups. Just look at the lobbyists that McCain hired to run his campaign. I will tell you that the former CEOs of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae need to be in jail, regardless of their party affiliation.