So Called "Green Power"

   So called "Green Power" is not the answer to our power generation on a wholesale level going forward. If an individual business or a home owner wants to invest in solar energy panels and generate their own electrical power, so be it. As far as solar engery panels and windmills being the major source of power production in America, there is a definitive point on I-20 East where if you are driving into Atlanta at nightfall you can see our magnificent skyline. One only has to observe Atlanta's skyline at night or watch the countdown from New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve to realize that it is ludicrous to even think that solar energy and windmills would even come close to generating the power demands that either will/would require.
   It never ceases to amaze me how some people jump on a bandwagon without realizing that the wheels on the wagon are suspect at best and that the wagon is headed toward the proverbial slippery slope. One thing to remember is that electricity cannot be stored. Once generated you either use it or you lose it. Case it point is that Georgia Power stated they already generate and have enough power to meet their demands. Why be given a mandate to invest capital dollars into solar energy power generation at the expense of idling existing coal fired/natural gas or hydro generating units in which the capital investment expenditures have either been met or about to be met? Translated, this means the capital debt incurred has been or is about to be retired.
   State Representative Rusty Kidd (I -145th./Milledgeville) apparently has a bone to pick With Georgia Power. According to an article (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Friday, July 12, 2013) he is behind a proposal that would authorize a new solar utility to compete against Georgia Power. I suppose Representative Kidd is talking about a new utility that would compete on the same level playing field as Georgia Power competes on. A new solar utility that would be an investor owned for profit public utility regulated under the auspices of the Georgia Public Service Commission. I want to put Representative Kidd's proposal out in front of the rate payers and stock holders of Georgia Power so they will demand that if such a proposal is put forth it will be done without federal or state subsidies. If you are going to play in the field of public utilities with Georgia Power being your opponent, then play by the same rules that Georgia Power plays by in our market driven system of free enterprise.
   Businesses operating in our market driven system of free enterprise do not need the "free stuff" from federal and state government. Like a well tuned football team they play by the rules of the game offering their goods and services to their consumers at affordable rates, stock dividends to their investors, and funding for their capital programs for expansion and/or upgrades. Translated, anyone with the common sense of a gnat knows that why all of a suden solar energy generation has become competitive with other means of power generation has been through federal subsidies. So Representative Kidd or whoever, start up your own solar energy utility to compete against Georgia Power but make and earn your own way and do not depend on state and federal taxpayers for funding.
   Before I leave Georgia Power I might say that if I was a rate payer I might have a bone to pick with them myself. However, I would have to fault the Public Service Commission in allowing Georgia Power a rate increase to recoup the construction costs, as I understand it, of new nuclear power generating facilities up front well in advance of the units coming online.
   My good friend and great American Kristi Reed who just happens to be the best Patch editor in America, and I do not exactly see eye to eye on nuclear power. I am no fan of nuclear power plants as they are costly to build, the construction interval is to long, and I have yet to hear of one coming in on budget and on time. Another concern of mine has been how to dispose of spent nuclear fuel. I thought this matter had been resolved when by an Act of Congress in 2002 the Yuma Mountain Nucaler Waste Facility in Neveda was funded. The facility was desigend to store  spent nuclear fuel and high level radioactive waste for the next 75 - 100 years. Guess what? Funding for the Yuma Mountain Nuclear Waste Facility was terminated by an amendment to the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuity Act as passed by Congress  April 14, 2011. 
   With funding for the Yuma Mountain facilty cut off and Obama's mandate on coal fired genearting plants it would appear that perhaps the social engineers in the Obama adminisration are the driving force behind "Green Power." Makes me wonder if any of them got their degree from the Saul Alinsky Institue of Technology.
   In closing, we need some leadership in Washington with the guts to scale down the EPA. Clean coal fired and natural gas fired technology, in addition to nuclear power, offers the best approach to power production at affordable rates for the consumer. The EPS is also, in my opinion, the number one culprit as to why there are no jobs for middle class Americans. The EPA through their cumbersome regulations has been, and continues to be, the major catalyst in sending American jobs overseas. Next EPA stop? "Rolling brownouts."