The Franklin News-Post
P. O. Box 250
310 Main Street, SW
Rocky Mount, Virginia 24151
540-483-5113
Fax: 540-483-8013
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| Company's rate hike request is assailed |
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Monday, November 23, 2009
By JOEL TURNER - Staff Writer
Dozens of speakers have urged the State Corporation Commission (SCC) to deny Appalachian Power Company's (APCo) request for a 14.5 percent increase in electricity rates.
During these tough economic times, consumers can't afford higher electrical bills, the speakers told a SCC panel Thursday night at Franklin County High School.
Higher electric rates would force some consumers to choose between food, medicine and the electric bill, they said.
Nearly 300 people attended the public hearing on APCo's request for a rate increase.
The audience included two bus loads of residents from Martinsville, Henry County and Patrick County.
Bassett Furniture Industries and Vaughan-Bassett Furniture helped pay for the chartered buses to bring residents to the hearing to describe their troubles in paying higher electric bills while living on fixed incomes.
Several residents of Franklin County also spoke at the hearing and pleaded with the SCC to reject APCo's request.
The speakers at the hearings included unemployed workers, retirees, Social Security recipients, veterans, ministers, home health nurses, furniture company executives, members of boards of supervisors and several state legislators.
They all pleaded with the SCC to reject or reduce APCo's request for a rate increase.
Del. Charles Poindexter (R-Franklin County) urged the SCC to keep the rate increase as "small as possible" if it finds an increase is necessary.
Poindexter said the economy is unlikely to improve during the next two years -- the time the hike would be in effect -- and consumers will continue to struggle to pay their electrical bills.
"Businesses are only hanging on and cannot absorb higher costs," Poindexter said.
"Elderly people on fixed incomes are especially facing costs they cannot cover. Unemployed and underemployed people simply lack the funds to pay increased rates," he said.
Local governments and school divisions also have rising costs that limit their ability to pay higher electrical rates, Poindexter said.
Other state legislators who spoke at the SCC hearing included State Sen. Roscoe Reynolds (D-Martinsville and Henry County); House Minority Leader Del. Ward Armstrong (D-Martinsville and Henry County); and Del.ﾠDon Merricks (R-Martinsville and Henry County).
All of the legislators asked the SCC to reject APCo's proposed 14.5 percent rate increase. They said higher electrical rates will make it tougher for Southside Virginia, especially Martinsville and Henry County, to recover from the worst economic problems since the Depression during the 1930s.
Higher electricity rates would mean the loss of more jobs in Southside Virginia, Reynolds said.
"I ask you to say 'no' to Appalachian," Reynolds said.
Armstrong said businesses and consumers no longer can afford APCo's constantly rising rates. APCo has filed 13 requests for rate increases since 2006, according to Armstrong.
Many people have seen their electrical rates double during the past five years, he said.
"People are struggling. Some have to decide whether they are going to buy food, medicine or pay the electrical bill," Armstrong told the SCC panel.
"If this region of Virginia is ever going to recover, these electrical rate increases have to be stopped," Armstrong said.
Merricks urged the SCC to consider the "human factor" and the economic struggles of residents in Southside.
"Our area has the highest unemployment in Virginia. Any increase in electrical rates will add to the burdens of our citizens," Merricks said.
"People are struggling to feed their families and they cannot pay higher rates," he added.
"If electric rates keep increasing, industries will move to other areas,"ﾠMerricks said.
One speaker said APCo "asks for a rate increase as often as some people wash their cars."
Doug Bassett, executive vice president of Vaughan-Bassett Furniture, told the SCC panel that electricity rate increases hurt businesses during a recession.
Vaughan-Bassett paid $758,000 for electricity in 2007 and $872,000 in 2008. Based on the bills so far this year, the company is predicting that its electrical bill will be $1.3 million in 2009.
Bassett told the panel that APCo's proposed rate increase is "obscene" during current economic conditions.
Several ministers and home health care nurses described the economic hardships facing many families as they struggle to pay their bills.
They said many people in Martinsville and Henry County are living "on the edge of poverty" and are in danger of having their electricity cut off or of being evicted from their homes.
The Rocky Mount hearing on APCo's request was the second of the week. The first was held in Abingdon.
The SCC will hold a formal hearing with lawyers' testimony in Richmond on March 16.
APCo says it needs the rate increase to cover the costs of the generation and distribution of electricity.
The company said it faces substantial increases in the cost of operating power plants to comply with federal clean air regulations.
Appalachian said it already has taken steps to reduce its costs, including a freeze on salaries, restricting hiring and business trips, and reducing its capital improvement budget.
Still, the company says new clean air regulations for power plants have caused a large increase in costs.
APCo said many of its costs, particularly those related to meeting federal environmental regulations, are out of the company's control.
APCo, a subsidiary of Ohio-based American Electric Power, has 500,000 customers in Virginia. |
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