State bill would limit Vogtle profit-taking
Sen. Hufstetler wants to rein in how much Georgia Power can charge customers for cost overruns at the nuclear power plant.
Bipartisan legislation sponsored by Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, R-Rome, is aimed at limiting what Georgia Power can bill its customers for construction cost overruns at Plant Vogtle.
“I support nuclear power as one of our forms of energy, but the cost has just gotten beyond any- one’s expectations,” he said.
The 2009 bill allowing the company to recover from current customers the money it spends to build the plant, including financing costs, turned out to be “an odd situation,” he said. The formula contains a builtin profit margin and the project is billions of dollars over budget.
“The more they go over on cost, the more they make,” Hufstetler noted.
The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, appointed for his numbercrunching ability honed by years on the Floyd County Commission, Hufstetler had initially mulled over legislation that would head off that situation for future plants. But last week he decided to address the Vogtle issue directly.
Senate Bill 355, sponsored by three Republicans and two Democrats, was assigned to the Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee Thursday and is awaiting a hearing.
The bill could be revised before it’s recommended for a full Senate vote, but one notable provision would exempt public schools and state charter schools from the financing costs. Instead, their “share” would accrue as an allowance and the utility could seek to add the amount to its base rate after the plant is up and running.
A similar limitation for other customers would be placed on costs incurred after the original opening date deadline. And if the project is abandoned, the money previously collected would have to be returned, either in a lump sum or through rate reductions.
“The concern is what ratepayers are paying, and should they have to pay for additional profits,” Hufstetler said. “There’s not an incentive to be efficient and be on budget the way it’s structured now.”
The schedule adopted by the Georgia General Assembly for this session sets March 5 as Crossover Day, the deadline for all bills to have passed at least one chamber or be declared dead. The 40-day session runs through March 29.