Dear Editor: If you find yourself in agreement with the assertion that “Coal is cheap,” you may be completely at ease with Snapping Shoals EMC being among the dwindling number of EMC’s working with Power4Georgians to build coal fired power plants in the counties of Washington and Ben Hill.
However, you could be among those who think the true cost of mining and of burning coal have not been fully recognized by the price in the past and that trying to forecast its cost or the cost of plants to burn it is a perilous business to be involved in. At this point, Plant Washington is projected to cost 2 billion dollars, but similar coal fired plants have been cancelled because of unexpectedly large increases (as much as doubling) in their costs of construction and operation. An indication of the risk being placed on our shoulders as Snapping Shoals customer/owners is that four of the original EMC’s in the plans to build the plants have pulled out. Those four EMC’s represented at least 50% of the stake in the undertaking. If Snapping Shoals stays in, we can expect the costs related to the construction of the plants to drive our rates higher.
At some point the costs of mining and burning coal are expected to more properly recognize the damage done environmentally and in terms of human health, and those costs will show up in our bills. The Environmental Protection Agency is even now rewriting the regulations regarding coal combustion and the toxic compounds produced in the process. All of this only makes it more difficult to forecast what our rates will be as customers except to say they will be higher.
As customer/owners of Snapping Shoals, it’s important that we express our concerns to the management and the directors of the organization. At the annual meeting in July, we should expect more than a pro-forma vote on directors of whom we know little beyond what churches they attend or how many children they have. We need to know what their interests are specifically in regard to energy production and use. They should support sustainable, environmentally friendly energy production. Finally, we must all realize the most important aspect of the annual meeting is not a drawing for a truck. It is our greatest opportunity to impact our future as customer/owners, and to let the officers of SSEMC know where and in what we want our money invested. Imagine the impact a few billion dollars could have, if it were invested in Rockdale, Newton and the other counties served by our EMC. Imagine that money being spent on making our homes more energy efficient. It would create more jobs here, reduce our bills and delay the need for more generating capacity by many years.
Ab Roesel
Rockdale County
