Local Utility Cost

Dear editor:

The front page story of the April 30th edition of the American Press, dealing with Entergy’s planned development of a nuclear facility and asking regulators “to allow the company to start recovering costs from its customers years before power is promised” is an affront to the citizens of Louisiana and is asking the utility regulators to pick the pockets of its constituents.

Under normal circumstances, when a company wants to start or expand its business with new equipment or facilities it finances that expansion thru: either borrowings with payment of interest; or the sale of stock, which gives the investors a partial ownership of the company itself and the future possibility of dividends and/or sale of the stock at a profit. This happens every day in the business world and is the driving force of our form of capitalism, which is a major part of the success of our nation. But, Entergy is looking to skirt this normal business practice.

Instead, Entergy is asking the utility regulators to allow them to force the people of Louisiana to become indentured investors in their company without compensating ownership or return on their investment via interest payments. This would be customer up front money to save interest payments or additional stock, and would benefit only those in control of the company to raise their already bloated pay, increase the value of their stock holdings, and put them in line for even bigger year end bonuses. All this at the expense of the citizens of Louisiana, who will have to pay even higher rates than they now pay.

This is not a matter of a business overcharging customers, who would have the opportunity to go elsewhere for their purchases, but rather forcing customers to do higher priced business with Entergy, which is “the only game in town.” I hope the regulators will see the light and turn this arrogant request down.