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Progress doesn't negotiate; why should Belleair stay with them?

Re: Belleair, stick with Progress Energy, St. Petersburg Times editorial recommendation, Nov. 2.

I admit some surprise in reading your opinion. I thought that the Times would favor the underdog.

It is difficult to do business with Progress Energy. Their attitude is: Here is what we offer, take it or leave it. Being a monopoly, they can say that. There is no competition to force them to improve. Of course, we have the state Public Service Commission protecting us. Sorry, that doesn't work because they're stacked with energy system cronies.

Logically, I would say that with no way to bring about honest reform, Belleair should do this itself. With no alternatives to force improvement, why should Belleair go back into the wolves' den?

Times seems to forget Progress' history of lies, abuse of trust

Re: Belleair, stick with Progress Energy, editorial recommendation, Nov. 2.

I am disappointed. I thought it was Times policy to interview both sides before assuming an editorial position, and you never undertook the effort to interview any of Belleair's consultants or leadership before publication.

Belleair's business plan is well crafted and profitable, including debt service. Belleair has bid and selected Coastal Electric Maintenance and Construction to be its professional operator. Progress Energy will be our wholesale energy provider. Current Belleair staff will do the billing. Belleair will be one of 34 Florida community members in the Florida Municipal Electric Association. FMEA provides storm recovery services through mutual aide, the same way Progress Energy does it.

The Times cavalierly dismisses Progress Energy's record of deceit and abuse of the public trust. The Times has reported on "forgotten" rollbacks of rates in the hundreds of millions of dollars, ridiculous perks to CEOs totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, padded hurricane charges, and hurricane windfall profits so egregious that the state attorney general had to intercede. Just last month Progress Energy was caught buying fuels from a sister company at inflated rates so the North Carolina conglomerate could pad profits and pass on ever-increasing fuel charges at our expense.

Why does the Times make an issue about Public Service Commission approval when it has so often reported on the inappropriate closeness of the PSC and staff with Progress lobbyists?

Progress Energy breached its 30-year contract with Belleair. Why would anyone trust them again? Winter Park kicked Progress Energy out by a 2 to 1 margin after similar scare tactics. Winter Park freely admits that there have been bumps in the road. You can't fix Progress Energy's jalopy poles and wires overnight. Two important facts: Winter Park's feasibility studies after one year of startup and four months of operation are on target and no one is crying for the return of Progress Energy.

The Orlando Sentinel reached the opposite editorial decision on similar issues in Winter Park. It appears the Times has failed to recognize the rewards of municipalization for our town and simply fallen for the tactics Progress Energy has used for years to bully towns like ours to preserve its monopoly.

The Times talks about promises and guarantees. Neither Progress Energy nor Belleair can guarantee lower rates and no outages. Dale Oliver, vice president of Progress Energy, has said Progress' philosophy is to replace upon failure and there are no plans to improve Belleair's infrastructure. One only has to look up in Belleair to see where that has gotten us.

Belleair can guarantee that decisions of local impact will not be made behind closed doors in Tallahassee or the board rooms in North Carolina. All decisions will be made in Town Hall, subject to citizen rule and in the sunshine. Please vote "yes" on Tuesday.

Politics of power lines all too evident in mailings

This past week I and presumably all of my Belleair neighbors received slick brochures in two different mailings advocating a "yes" vote in Tuesday's referendum on giving Progress Energy the boot.

One includes the statement, "By voting Yes for Belleair you are saying Yes to burying power lines for free." The other asserts, "We bury power lines for free ..."

Consisting entirely of catch-phrases, these shiny pamphlets have all the earmarks of a professional political harum-scarum operation.

The meaning of "free" is, of course, left to the imagination. Presumably, to a young enough reader, it means that the lines will be buried by Santa Claus and his elves on Christmas Eve.

These two slick broadsides reflect the politicization of our electricity. If the local pols want to be on the utility gravy train, they should do it the normal way and head for Tallahassee. We don't need a small-town version of it.

[Last modified November 6, 2005, 01:59:22]