Former Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers says power companies doing it all wrong

The former CEO of Duke Energy — the country’s biggest power company and an aggressive monopoly in Florida keen on preserving its control of the electricity market — now says that the way Duke and all big U.S. power companies operate is out of date.

“It’s very clear to me that the system of electric power we have in North America and Europe, which is now being instituted in much of China and India and elsewhere, is not sustainable for the future of the planet. So we’re going to have to figure out something else, and soon.”

Consider the irony of this statement by Jim Rogers, author of the just-released book Lighting the World, in the wake of Duke’s regressive style of operating in Florida.

Duke tried to build a nuclear power plant in Levy County, only to table the project amid runaway costs and a state law that limits the utility’s own risks by charging Florida ratepayers for up-front expenses topping billions of dollars. Duke considered fixing a botched do-it-yourself repair on its Crystal River nuclear plant in Citrus County, its only nuke plant in the state. Instead, Duke chose to shut it down prematurely and permanently — forcing an expensive, multigeneration plan to decommission the radioactive plant. That decision, in turn, will force a new natural gas plant to be built to replace the lost nuclear power. Much of these bungles entail extra costs foisted on ratepayers.

Now Duke is among the cabal of large power companies in Florida trying to undermine the state’s solar industry to gain a stronger foothold in a sunshine-laden state woefully behind in using renewable energy.

Today, the Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments for and against the proposed language of a ballot a group known as Floridians for Solar Choice hopes to put in front of Florida voters in 2016.
Read ful larticle at TampaBay.com