Regarding your Aug. 29 article (” `Stranded costs’ have lawmakers up a tree”):
The real issue in stranded costs is preserving a big investment in Illinois nuclear plants. Under deregulation the legislature must find a way to fairly handle Commonwealth Edison’s stranded costs for its nuclear plants, or we will all lose. The state agreed that when the utility built the nuclear plants, under the rules of a regulated monopoly it could recover its prudent investment. By deregulating the supply system and not properly allowing recovery of these stranded costs, the state will be breaking its word.
Also, big industrial electricity users, many of whom enthusiastically pushed for construction of nuclear plants during the 1960s and 1970s as they saw the need for a plentiful and stable electricity supply to expand their production, should not be allowed to jump to new electric-power suppliers unless they pay their fair share of Commonwealth Edison’s stranded costs. Otherwise, shareholders and the remaining customers– residential ratepayers and small businesses–will have to pay the full costs of plants that have provided power reliably and safely over the years.
More important, however, is that should Commonwealth Edison be forced to abandon some or all of its plants, we will have lost a multibillion-dollar investment. The stability these large-scale suppliers of power bring to the electricity supply network will also be lost, and inevitably we will see more brownouts and blackouts.
Finally, who will be the big financial losers if Commonwealth Edison stock plummets as a result of being stuck with stranded costs? Certainly not the company executives. Rather, it will be the small investor who bought “safe” utility stock for his or her retirement. Deregulation may bring lower electricity costs, but not done carefully it may cost us all very dearly.
