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130 comments on Problems for the Pickens' Plan

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airdale on July 11, 2009 - 8:58am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

KU is owned basically by LG&E of Louisville. There was formed a holding company that is owned by LG&E and under this is KU.

This may have changed in the years since the Y2K time frame. I do not remember the name of the holding company/corp.

I was doing contract consulting of both parties when this came about.

The name KU is still used however.

KU supplies most of the states power but not all. There are many Rural Electric Co-ops and in my area they abound.

What is your kwh rate then in Georgetown?

KU was once a very good company but changes came about.

Like I said, my coop buys power from TVA. And when rates go up they blame it on TVA.

Airdale

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AlanfromBigEasy on July 11, 2009 - 10:32am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

The KU trucks have "An eon Company" under the logo. A quick search found that www.eon-us.com lists KU.

E.ON U.S., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is a subsidiary of E.ON A.G., the world's largest investor-owned energy services provider.

Per the on-line filing, the base residential rates are $5/month plus $0.05879 per kWh plus various taxes & fees with a fuel cost adjustment.

This coincides with my somewhat vague memeroy from my once a year accounting for my father of the farm expenses. Total bill/kWh is about 7 cents/kWh.

Your co-op will have to recover the massive costs (with little revenue that month) from last winter's ice storm. Sure to impact the bills.

Alan

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airdale on July 11, 2009 - 3:07pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Rates were up before the ice storm.

The ice storm repairs were paid by the US Government as a Federal disaster was declared.

The utility in fact profited since many of their infrastructure was replaced for basically FREE.

When I brought this farm I was paying about 6 cents kwh. I have kept track of every bill.

Storm did not impact bills. But they allowed them to increase with the thought by the populace that is exactly as you state. They 'assumed'.

Lots of folks made lots of money off our misery. The cost for all these trucks to pick up the debris was $4.07 per cubic foot. Wow.

Yet the county was not out and the utilities was not out. Money that is.

In fact many profited as I stated. And I can likely bet that boom trucks from other parts of the country had men paid very very well.

What was NOT told very well was the churches and men who on their own DIMES came and cut downed trees and helped landowners but COULD NOT go near the right of ways.

I myself spent 6 hours on the first day cutting trees off the state hwy that comes thru..and doing it going back in. Then again the next day and the next day. It was quite a few days before ANY HELP arrived. Except for the church men of course who came right away and brought their own food and sleep in the churches nearby.

My own church would not even offer hot coffee and instead asked others to help them!!!!! Did NOTHING. The other churches opened up and heated food on propane grills. Mine? Zero.

It was the residents who helped each other and came together. I worked on getting generators going and hooked into houses. While I had no generator of my own due to letting others have them.

I got a very good close look at how emergencies are handled.

It was atrocious. It was ugly. It was administration at its very worse. I will never forget it and you should have read all my very copious POSTS during the whole time and event. Thats what I said then and what I say now.

Its like you got this idea about things that are simply not reality.

As for LG&E..perhaps they sold out.. But not when I was there on Y2K. Or else it was all very mysterious and hidden.

Just like the ice storm me and the other systems programmers worked our nuts off and were not even given an 'attaboy'. The manglers copped all the good stuff while making embarassing mistakes and plans.

Airdale

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eric blair on July 11, 2009 - 8:27pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Lots of folks made lots of money off our misery.

How is that different than any other day - 'cept it was you who got the short, brown sticky end of the stick this time?

I got a very good close look at how emergencies are handled.
It was atrocious. It was ugly. It was administration at its very worse.

Do feel free to show any government that does not have "atrocious" or "ugly" to describe some of the responses to emergencies.

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r4ndom on July 13, 2009 - 11:23am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I'd note that our government did pretty well through the '90's.

Not perfect, but a lot of the failings of recent years would simply not have been tolerated.

Now, well, "Who could have known?"

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AlanfromBigEasy on July 13, 2009 - 12:09pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Bill Clinton saw the failure of the older Bush after Hurricane Andrew (and the political fallout) and decided to make FEMA attractive and well operated.

More than one Beltway commentator noted that Clinton liked to visit disaster areas and bask in the afterglow of a job well done (and show his concern for those suffering, the "I feel your pain"). Good sound bites and photo-ops.

I never felt the same as the commentators, I still believe that politicians should rightfully bask in the applause for a job well done. We are well served if good policy is good politics.

GWB appointed the college roommate of his 2000 campaign director, a man who had been "asked to leave" because he could not properly organize a horse show. The results were predictable, and it shows R priorities.

Alan

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130 comments on Problems for the Pickens' Plan

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