In December of 2011, SACE filed an appeal with the Florida State Supreme Court challenging the Florida Public Service Commission’s (PSC) November 2011 decision regarding “nuclear cost recovery” for Progress Energy (PEF) and Florida Power & Light (FPL). The PSC approved a combined $282 million for those two utilities, bringing the total to more than [...]
Georgia Power Company (GPC) operates a fleet of old coal plants. Their oldest coal units, Yates units 1 and 2, are 61 years old. Unlike wine, cheese or a savings account, coal plants do not get better with age. They become more expensive to maintain, less efficient and more damaging to human health and the [...]
As discussed in the main post, Price signals don’t always work, creating a meaningful connection between energy price signals and consumers is challenged by a number of market barriers. Those market barriers are particularly acute when it comes to energy waste (but are also present for customer-sited renewable energy); overcoming barriers to energy efficiency requires [...]
According to a new study from Citizens for Tax Justice, Duke Energy led five other Southeastern utilities in avoiding federal corporate income taxes. Compared to the statutory 35% corporate tax rate, Southeastern utilities paid about 10.5% of pre-tax profits in federal taxes during the 2008-10 time period. Duke’s effective tax rate of -3.9% (that is, [...]
This blog was written by SACE intern Jeannie McKinney and Natalie Mims. Finding best practices in utility-led energy efficiency programs usually means looking beyond our region. Sadly, most of the leading programs are developed and demonstrated by peer utilities in other regions of the U.S. It has been particularly distressing to see that the great [...]
–SACE’s High Risk Energy Choices Organizer, Mandy Hancock, contributed to this blog post. Last month, SACE again participated in the nuclear cost recovery hearings for Progress Energy Florida (PEF) and Florida Power & Light (FPL) at the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) in Tallahassee. This is the third consecutive year that these Florida utilities have [...]
North Carolina is increasing energy efficiency, cutting waste I’m a native Floridian and as long as I can remember, there’s always been a special relationship between Florida and North Carolina, especially in the heat of summer when some Floridians retreat to the mountains for milder temperatures. Both states nicely combine the gracious hospitality of Southern [...]
People in the Southeast do want energy efficiency! We had no doubts, but it is great to see strong participation in the first full year of new efficiency programs offered by Progress Energy Carolinas (PEC) and Duke Energy Carolinas (DEC). Our analysis shows that both utilities achieved greater savings and spent less per kWh than [...]
The long darkness is over! OK, that’s a bit melodramatic but … after many years of very little access to energy efficiency programs, Southeastern households and businesses are finding that their utilities may be offering attractive and comprehensive energy efficiency programs. As recently as 2008, significant energy efficiency programs in the Southeast were limited to [...]
It got U-G-L-Y in the Florida energy efficiency debate. Progress Energy attorney John Burnett literally maligned dozens of utilities across the country when he explained that the programs that other utilities operate are faking it – reporting bogus energy savings. This remarkable attack took place while the Florida Public Service Commission considered proposed utility energy [...]
