On Tuesday, January 10, Senator Buck Newton and I met with our fellow members of the Joint Municipal Power Agency Relief Legislative Study Committee to continue gathering information and weighing potential solutions for the high electric rates faced by Rocky Mount residents and other cities in the N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency. The N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency provides wholesale power to Rocky Mount and other participating communities.
In the 1980s, Rocky Mount and 31 other towns and communities banned together to buy into power plants. During the process, they accumulated billions of dollars of debt. Now residents of member communities, including Rocky Mount, are struggling to pay off the $2.1 billion debt. On average, a monthly power agency electric bill is 35% more than the average monthly bill of Progress Energy customers. The power agency's rates are higher to help pay off the debt. Citizens cannot continue to pay these exorbitant rates until 2026, the year the debt is scheduled to be paid off.
By hearing from economic development and energy experts and listening to the experiences of town managers from Greenville and Wake Forest who have managed to keep their electric rates competitive, the committee and I are exploring every possible solution to lowering the electric rates plaguing member communities. Whether it's restructuring and refinancing the debt or selling asetts, we are determined to relieve citizens of high energy costs. The committee will be meeting again in the upcoming month and creating a report to summarize our findings and possible solutions.
No comments:
Post a Comment