Latest / Chuck Douglas / AEP Prices and your calls

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AEP Prices and your calls · Chuck Douglas

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  Speaker 1: Chuck Douglas in the Power Hour six ten WUTV. And
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: it's our last time together during the Power Hour portion
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  Speaker 1: of the afternoon for this week. I mean, we'll do
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  Speaker 1: it again Monday, but there is no Friday show it
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: of course, even I get a couple of days off
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  Speaker 1: for the weekend. Here's something you don't see every day, zact.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Here's something you don't see you ready, we're building a
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  Speaker 1: state of the art acts throwing facility in Grove City.
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  Speaker 1: Oh those are fun, man, Yeah, I've never I However,
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  Speaker 1: we may have to learn how to do that to
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  Speaker 1: hunt for food. Of the utilities keep up the way
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  Speaker 1: they're going.
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  Speaker 2: They're pretty fun.
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  Speaker 1: I've been to one. I was in Chicago. You have
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  Speaker 1: to wear a plaid shirt. No you don't.
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  Speaker 3: They give you like minimal instructions.
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  Speaker 1: And we were allowed to drink at the one sharp
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  Speaker 1: objects flying through the air with minimal instruction. That right there,
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  Speaker 1: My friend is a party.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, it was good times and we were drinking too.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, what could go wrong? AEP rates going up
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  Speaker 1: June first, that's with neuron. It's twenty seven dollars on average.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to be more for me. If your luck
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  Speaker 1: is anything like mine, yours will be too, because they
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  Speaker 1: are saying the data centers largely are requiring all this
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  Speaker 1: new power. And keep in mind, folks, they ain't done
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  Speaker 1: building yet, so you know it's gonna go up again
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  Speaker 1: with the same excuse. And I just don't think it's
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  Speaker 1: our responsibility to pay for their their there quenched or
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  Speaker 1: unquenched thirst for electricity. They should pay it. There should
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  Speaker 1: be a surg charge. If you are in a business
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  Speaker 1: like that, it should fall on you to pay that.
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  Speaker 1: And I think, I think, I think that's a reasonable state.
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  Speaker 1: I'm glad to have them here, don't get me wrong.
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  Speaker 1: Great to have new corporate business coming in and uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, hopefully thousands of people around the state getting employed,
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  Speaker 1: and those people spending money and making money on which
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  Speaker 1: they'll pay income taxes, and and buying stuff with they'll
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  Speaker 1: pay sales taxes, and buying homes for what they'll pay
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  Speaker 1: property taxes because you know there's and after all those taxes,
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  Speaker 1: hopefully they can still pay the utilities. I'm just saying,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's it's not it's not right, for lack of
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  Speaker 1: a better term, for everybody to get all happy that
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  Speaker 1: this business is coming to the state of Ohio only
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  Speaker 1: to find out that it's going to cost you a
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  Speaker 1: two on a two one WTV And Pete has been
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  Speaker 1: on hold since nineteen sixty three, so you're up, Pete?
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  Speaker 1: How are you?
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  Speaker 3: Hey?
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  Speaker 4: Listen, I agree with everything that you're saying. And maybe
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  Speaker 4: you said this earlier. I might have missed it. But
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  Speaker 4: obviously these data centers are going to be using more electricity,
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  Speaker 4: so AEP will be making enough money off of that.
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  Speaker 4: You know they'll be making uh So, I don't you know,
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  Speaker 4: why do they need to pass the buck onto us
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  Speaker 4: when again, they'll be making plenty money off the extra
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  Speaker 4: electricity that the data centers will be using. Something tells
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  Speaker 4: me it's just a backdoor deal that was agreed upon
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  Speaker 4: by AP and Google and et cetera. And and you
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  Speaker 4: mentioned earlier, you know that it's putting it on us
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  Speaker 4: as an excuse I can. I think a better word
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  Speaker 4: would be a lie. It's they're they're they based. I
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  Speaker 4: think AP was just looking for an opportunity to jack
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  Speaker 4: up the rates, and now they they can do it
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  Speaker 4: with justification, with minimal complaint. They can just say, hey,
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  Speaker 4: you know this is this needs to be done and
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  Speaker 4: we're gonna this and this is why we're going to
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  Speaker 4: do it, and people are just going to bend over
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  Speaker 4: and take it because we're used to everything increasing nowadays.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we can't A lot of people probably think, well,
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  Speaker 4: we can't fight anything else. We can't do anything about
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  Speaker 4: gas prices, food prices, et cetera. So this is just
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  Speaker 4: one more thing.
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  Speaker 1: We have to deal with and p You know what,
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  Speaker 1: when when you're bringing in a company like this or
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  Speaker 1: a business like this, I think it would be reasonable
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  Speaker 1: to say it's incumbent upon the powers that be, whether
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  Speaker 1: it's legislature, the governor's office, the Utilities Commission, whatever. You
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  Speaker 1: know what they do, you know how they do it.
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  Speaker 1: You see what they've done in other states and the
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  Speaker 1: kind of energy drawing. I don't think it will be
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  Speaker 1: out of the question to make that part of the
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  Speaker 1: negotiations to bring the companies in. You don't want to
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  Speaker 1: bend over backwards or forwards, or frankly bend over at
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  Speaker 1: all just to get the companies to come in here.
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  Speaker 1: You know. It's uh kind of the same thing you
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  Speaker 1: tell your kid when they start dating as a teenager.
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  Speaker 1: You want to be respected for what you have to offer.
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  Speaker 1: Don't just you know, start ripping off your clothes and
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  Speaker 1: laying down in front of whoever says hello to you
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  Speaker 1: be respected for what you have to offer. And I
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  Speaker 1: don't think necessarily that when we were putting all these
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  Speaker 1: deals together, the people representing the interest of the state
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  Speaker 1: of Ohio, we're doing that so desperate to have the
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  Speaker 1: attention of wonderful intel that we forgot to say, Hey,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: by the way, we're a pretty damn good catch. Or again,
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  Speaker 1: maybe that's just me A two n WTV and John,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you are in the Legacy Retirement Ooh, I like line
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: for a JP standby John, You're on the Legacy Retirement
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  Speaker 1: Group dot com phone lines.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, Hi, Hey, just like to respond to the gentlemans
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  Speaker 3: before me. The reasons they're doing it is called stockholders
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  Speaker 3: number one. I want to know what utilities are doing
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  Speaker 3: with stockholders number two, Like the water company, you're not
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  Speaker 3: allowed to have a barrel outside of your house and
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  Speaker 3: collect rain.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think you can have the barrel outside as
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  Speaker 1: long as it is not for potable water, not for
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  Speaker 1: drinking water. You can use it for your garden and
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: things like that. But John, that's where I started the
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  Speaker 1: show off. I don't believe things that are essential for life,
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  Speaker 1: like keeping your house warm in the winter, like keeping
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  Speaker 1: the heat on in the winter, or you know, running
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  Speaker 1: at least a fan in the summer, or being able
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  Speaker 1: to bathe or flush or drink to sustain life. I
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  Speaker 1: don't think those things should have been turned into profit
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  Speaker 1: centers in the first place, but they are, and we
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  Speaker 1: have to deal with it. It gets particularly offensive when
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  Speaker 1: you have an entity like a government into the city
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  Speaker 1: of Columbus, owning your water and sewer and willing to
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  Speaker 1: cut your butt off. If you're laid on that page,
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  Speaker 1: you need it to live, man, You need it to live,
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  Speaker 1: And to cut something off that is essential for life
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  Speaker 1: is just obscene to me.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, how about we just turn around and limit the
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  Speaker 3: amount of profit a stockholder can get. How about you
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  Speaker 3: put some type of regulation. Hey, this is a utility.
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  Speaker 3: You know, if you want to buy the stock, you
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  Speaker 3: know you're not going to make a million dollars. I mean,
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  Speaker 3: I don't understand.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate what you're saying, and don't I don't argue
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  Speaker 1: with you. The trouble is, I guess I want common sense.
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  Speaker 1: I'm so sick of legislation. We legislate everything. I just
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  Speaker 1: I would like a little common sense, common decency to
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  Speaker 1: apply to everything. Quite frankly, A two one nine at
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  Speaker 1: eighty six eight two one WUTV And I got to
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: get this guy on JV Blackwell. I was talking about
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  Speaker 1: him earlier. You are officially with the Office of the Consumer's.
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  Speaker 2: Council, right, yes, And I'm calling with my Ohio Consumers
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  Speaker 2: Council hat on all right, and my ears were burning though, Jock.
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  Speaker 1: Well, good, I want him to burn. I'd give a
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  Speaker 1: nice chan early in the season. Tell me JP what
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  Speaker 1: the meeting was held January third, which I think was
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  Speaker 1: a really stupid time for the PUCO to hold a
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  Speaker 1: meeting like this. But that aside, did this this attempt
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  Speaker 1: at an agreement fail and fall flat on its face
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  Speaker 1: where they were trying to protect the consumers for any
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  Speaker 1: increased cost?
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  Speaker 2: Well, these things move kind of slowly and real quickly.
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  Speaker 2: I agree with you. I'd like to see the PUCO
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  Speaker 2: hold its meetings at times that are more accessible to
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  Speaker 2: the public. How about six o'clock on a Tuesday evening.
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  Speaker 1: That would be great. Yeah, after we're done stimulating the economy.
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  Speaker 2: There you go, oh, there you go. So to put
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  Speaker 2: a little context. There's a case before the PUCO right
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  Speaker 2: now and it's about it's specifically about AP and how
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  Speaker 2: data centers are paying for their electricity, and it's still ongoing.
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  Speaker 2: Another I need to do so much context, but we're
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  Speaker 2: we're the Ohio Consumers Council. We are the state agency
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  Speaker 2: that's appointed to represent consumers in matters related to their
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  Speaker 2: regulated utilities. So we are participating in this case and
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  Speaker 2: we want to make sure that costs aren't shifted from
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  Speaker 2: the data centers to the residential consumers. You know, you know,
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  Speaker 2: to one extent, you know, they're going to pay for
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  Speaker 2: the electricity they used, but what about the transmission facilities
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  Speaker 2: and the terribly expensive infrastructure that goes to get the
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  Speaker 2: electricity to those facilities. We are wanting to make sure
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  Speaker 2: that the residents well, that the causers of the costs
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  Speaker 2: are paying for that, and that's the data centers and
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  Speaker 2: crypto miners that are paying for that. And the case
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  Speaker 2: is ongoing. In what's very unusual, uh AP and the
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  Speaker 2: consumersk Council and a few others are on the same side.
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  Speaker 2: Usually we're kind of buttonheads with AP. They've got a
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  Speaker 2: job to do, but often we find ourselves on opposite
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  Speaker 2: sides of the aisle in terms of uh, you know,
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  Speaker 2: pc O settlements, but they actually have with us. There's
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  Speaker 2: a settlement that really we think does a pretty good
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  Speaker 2: job of separating out the data centers and setting up
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  Speaker 2: some rules. They're going to make them, They're going to
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  Speaker 2: make them pay the cost that they're generating for all
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  Speaker 2: this extra transmission. There's another settlement that's put out by Microsoft, Google, Facebook,
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  Speaker 2: I'm missing somebody, but big, big, big players.
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  Speaker 1: They probably Amazon.
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  Speaker 3: That is not so.
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  Speaker 2: Friendly, not so friendly to consumers. And the puzio's job
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  Speaker 2: is to accept one accept one settlement or the other,
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  Speaker 2: or perhaps come to a compromise between the two settlements.
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  Speaker 1: Will there be any further public hearings, any more input
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  Speaker 1: from the consumers before this culminates in some sort of
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  Speaker 1: vote or whatever on the agreement.
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  Speaker 2: No more hearings, But it's never too late to call
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  Speaker 2: the Public Utilities Commission or it's a little complicated that
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  Speaker 2: they could actually go online and make a comment in
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  Speaker 2: the case. And when you make a comment on a case,
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  Speaker 2: the commissioners are required to consider that as evidence in
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  Speaker 2: the case. So if you want to say, if you
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  Speaker 2: want to make a comment on this case and say
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  Speaker 2: how you think this affects you. We really encourage consumers
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: to do that because although we're the state agency that
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: represents consumers, there's something a little more powerful about consumers
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  Speaker 2: picking up the phone and calling themselves. They're going online
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  Speaker 2: and that they comments themselves.
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  Speaker 1: JP Blackwood, Ohio Consumers Counsel. Thank you for not only
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  Speaker 1: checking in and giving us what you know, but for
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  Speaker 1: being a listener. I appreciate you, buddy. I'm sure we
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: will talk again in the very near future.
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  Speaker 2: That would be great. I will send you the links
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  Speaker 2: where people can comment if you're interested.
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  Speaker 1: I appreciate it, and I'll get it on Facebook, Twitter,
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  Speaker 1: and Instagram. Thanks for joining me tonight on six' TEN
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  Speaker 1: wtv