Getting the shaft

Paying the bills and actually took a moment to read the "Power Notes" included with the Nashville Electric Service bill.  It's no surprise to me that TVA and NES want to raise rates. It's no surprise that NES want to start using 'smart metering' and 'time of use' rates. What was a surprise was their assertion that it costs more (or less) to produce power at some times of the year. When did it get more expensive to mine coal in the summer and winter? Did they start heating and cooling those shafts? Are they paying miners more so they'll not take vacations and be available  during peak AC and heating times to keep that ore flowing through power plants? Are they having to compete with Ocoee river rafters for use of water for hydro-electric power? Wonder if those TVA and NES offices are conserving all they can and set at 78 and 68 degrees.

This was telling also: "TVA hopes to avoid or delay construction of costly new power plants." Yeah, let's delay providing customers more of what they want and need. Let's make sure they never see any clean and cheap nuclear facilities. Ignore those French power plants. Never mind we need to create jobs and power industries that will do the hiring. No more power plants for Tennesseans.

Seems like the depression is what fueled TVA's inception. Seems like someone forgot, in this current depression that fuel is essential for job building and family finances.

During his 1980 Labor Day speech at New Jersey's Liberty State Park, Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan listed the economic failures of his opponent, President Jimmy Carter. With the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop, Reagan used the moment to respond to Carter, who had accused Reagan of misusing the term "depression" to describe a recession that began in January of that year. "Let it show on the record that when the American people cried out for economic help, Jimmy Carter took refuge behind a dictionary. Well, if it's a definition he wants, I'll give him one. A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter  loses his." Newsweek

Here's another family trying to hold on through the Obama, Pelosi and Reid administration.  We lost a job, half our retirement and now we can look forward to higher electric rates.  Here's another Reagan quote...slightly altered:

Are you better off than you were 2 years ago? Absolutely NOT!

Looking forward to recovery starting in November when voters start kicking out Dems and RINOS and Barak Obama loses his job. It can't come soon enough for us.