Misery Loves Company

No one likes high winter bills. But I'll certainly take my whopper over having no power, like our neighbors in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Missouri.

Looks like our neighbors to the east are also experiencing sticker shock when opening their bills. The Tennessean, Nashville's daily paper, recently ran an article entitled: Tennessee fumes over high heating bills; Nashville-area utilities get record number of calls. Nashville Electric Service (NES) is passing the buck to TVA, which raised its wholesale rate more than 20 percent over last year.

The President & CEO of NES wrote an editorial in last weekend’s Tennessean stressing the importance of conservation.

Many people are concerned about how the recent coal ash spills might further effect electric bills. TVA officials will go before the Nashville Metro Council members next month to answer questions about rate hikes, the recent coal ash disaster in East Tennessee and other issues. (See the story here.) Nashville Councilman Hunt "recently learned that TVA is not regulated like other utilities and he wants to know more about what oversight it faces and how that could be improved." Should be an interesting meeting.

On Feb. 25, our own CEO, Jerry Collins, will travel with other members of the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association (TVPPA) to ask Congress for federal assistance with the coal ash cleanup. TVPPA wants to avoid the cost of the cleanup being passed on to TVA customers.