Columbia River P.U.D., which incorporates the St. Helens area in Columbia County does it.
Can Clatsop County?
It seems our Clatsop County Board of Commissioners wants to explore the potential.
Do we have the resources to stand on our own and control our own energy self-sufficiency?
Here's some information on how our neighbor does it.....Columbia River P.U.D.
5 comments:
I do not think the Clatsop County Commissioners understand the resposibilities of creating a PUD. I do not believe the county can financially handle such a project. It seems to me there are more important things that need their attention. I believe Pacific Power has the technology and financial means to move us toward other sources of energy. I do not feel our local goverment should buy out a private business that has been in our area for a hundred years! I feel privledged to live in an area that Pacific Power services. Let's not forget as a community how well they responded during the 2007 storm and every minor storm since.
I believe, with great insight about the electric industry, that the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners has come up with the best idea that has come out of county government in a hundred years.
If you think Pacific Power has a special commitment to you because they planted 200 trees, then it's time you woke up and smell what's cooking.
If you are paying nearly triple of some public utilities, and well over double of most public utilities, then you must have a clue as to the main reason private utilities feel the need to return handsome dividends to shareholders, hence the term 'investor owned utilities'.
Open your ears and eyes, listen to some common sense as it's presented, and make the right choice based on reasonable reasearch.
i grew up in pacific power land and when iwas a kid there was a pacific power 4x8 sheet of plywood on every outfield fence there was also district offices in small towns all over oregon. now all you get from them is abill not help to keep little leaguers playing or local decisions made. all ppandl does now is send millions to its parent holding co mid american energy which is a holding company for berkshire hathaway aka warren buffet in other words your bill does nothing to help any local economy it goes to iowa and then who knows were? ask anyone who has public power with possible exception of west oregon electric and you'll probably get a possitive comment because the company is locally managed,the rates are lower. they have an opritunity to voice ther opinion to the board of dirrectors,and the money they do spend on there rates stays local instead of padding some ceo's pocketbook which by the way the ceo of pacific power got a 110% raise last year to the tune of1.25million plus bonuses and periferals now you know where your rates realy go.
PPL cares only about making money to send back to Iowa. They could care less about Astoria,Warrenton,seaside or Knappa the only town they care about is canon beach if you didn't notice in 2007. The only people who care about Clatsop county are the ones who work here. So if you would like cheaper rates and better reliability why wouldn't you want a pud. At least you get to have a say in what goes on in the utility. VOTE YES FOR PUD
During the 2007 storm Pacific Power chose to install a generator to power up a portion of Cannon Beach. This seems like an odd decision considering that there is not a supermarket, hospital, gas station, or any other essential service in the entire town. The only consumers that were getting energized were vacation homes, tourist shops, and those with the resources (read money) to live in Cannon Beach year round. Meanwhile, over the hill in Seaside, the power had been out just as long as it had been in Cannon Beach, and people were unable to purchase fuel, food, and the hospital was running on emergency power. Doesn't it seem that powering up these businesses would have been a better use for this resource. During this time that the generator was being set up to feed these "essential" services I saw that many of Pacific Power's employees were busy with this project, I would imagine that their time and energy could have been better spent getting the power back on to the rest of the county. It seems to me that the politics of money was the only concern of Pacific Power.
If Pacific Power were truly a private company I would not have a problem with poor business decisions such as this. We would have some recourse if there was some competition. We could chose another utility. But Pacific Power is not a true private company, it is a regulated monopoly that is guaranteed a certain return on its investment. Like every other corporation in the world it must pass on all of its costs to its customers, but unlike every other corporation it has a captive consumer base and is guaranteed a percentage profit. The other customers throughout its company were, in the end, the ones who paid for the generator to power the vacation homes, beach shops, and those that can afford to live in this upscale community all year.
I cannot imagine that this is the only example of incompetence on the part of the management at Pacific Power. Since the consumers in Clatsop County cannot choose to use a competitor and vote with our feet we have only one recourse. We can throw Pacific Power out and go into business for ourselves. Then when poor decisions, such as that above, are made we can vote those board members that made them. I think that it is in Clatsop Counties best interest to form a Peoples Utility District.
Post a Comment