Published: July 13, 2009 11:33 pm      

Legislation would hike AEP bills

Increase of 15% to 25% expected if legislation gets Senate's OK

Ashland — Legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on June 26 would cause higher electric bills for many if it passes in the Senate, according to electric companies.

It’s also getting complaints from environmental groups who say the bill is easy on polluters.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, introduced in the Senate last week, would increase bills for those getting energy from Kentucky Power through American Electric Power by between 15 percent and 25 percent, said Ronn Robinson, corporate communications manager for Kentucky Power.

The estimate is the same for all AEP customers.

An average monthly bill for a customer of American Electric Power is about $81, Robinson said.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association has estimated an average monthly energy bill would increase by anywhere from $12 to $20, said Carol Fraley, president and CEO of Grayson Rural Electric, which is part of NRECA.

The increase is significant because about 65 percent of the Grayson RECC’s customers are at or below state poverty levels, Fraley said.

Requirements of the legislation, including a cap on carbon emissions and new standards for renewable electrical energy, would cause the increase, Robinson said.

The cap would mean companies that emit carbon would either have to buy allowances to emit that carbon or be given allowances by the government.

The bill puts a cap on carbon emissions created through things such as burning coal for energy. It would create a system where all creators of emissions would have to purchase allowances for every ton of carbon they emit into the atmosphere.

Originally, most of the allowances were supposed to be sold, but now approximately 80 percent will be given away by the government and the rest sold on the market, according to a report from the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Giving allowances away as opposed to making polluters buy them will be less expensive to energy consumers, Robinson said.

He said if the bill had passed without the change the increase to an average energy bill would have been much higher.

Energy producers will also have to begin investing in renewable power sources, according to the committee report. By 2020, 15 percent of the electricity in each state would have to come from renewable energy sources.

Robinson said higher energy costs would also mean higher costs for things such as transportation and food.

“Energy is the backbone of everything,” he said.

Fraley said she fears the bill might also mean people in the coal industry will lose jobs. Representatives from the NRECA have been in contact with legislators to let them know about the expected impact of the bill, she said.

“What we’re trying to do is mitigate the impact it will have,” Fraley said.

Rep. Geoff Davis, R-Kentucky, called the bill an energy tax on middle-class families. In a press release on the topic he cites a Heritage Foundation report that said 22,000 jobs would be lost in Kentucky in 2012 because of the legislation.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the floor of the house the bill would create jobs.

On her Web site she says that the legislation will create millions of jobs in clean energy technology.

Elizabeth Crowe, executive director of the Kentucky Environmental Foundation, said arguments that renewable energy will cost more aren’t valid because the cost of energy sources such as coal are increasing.

“The cost that consumers are seeing going up, and up, and up is really just a shadow of what’s to come,” she said.

Crowe said that, while clean energies would take investment, they would pay off.

Vivian Stockman, project coordinator with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, said that, while legislation addressing issues like energy use and climate change is vital, the bill falls short in several key areas.

She said unless serious changes were made to the bill the foundation wouldn’t support it.

“It’s a giveaway to the coal, nuclear and fossil fuel industries,” she said.

Stockman said the carbon reduction goals in the bill need to be strengthened and that, instead of giving out allowances, the government should sell all the allowance or implement a tax on carbon instead.

She also said ideas for “clean coal” technologies such as Carbon Capture Sequestration, which involves pumping pollutants underground, are unproved and should be removed from the bill.

OHVEC is working with an umbrella organization called CLEAN to start a grassroots movement encouraging people to call senators and outline their concerns, she said.

“It’s really down to the fact that we are eating ourselves alive with our energy policy,” she said.

The bill passed in the House with a vote of 219 to 212. It was received in the Senate on July 6.

KATIE BRANDENBURG can be reached at kbrandenburg@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2657.