Tuesday, February 28, 2006

ComEd-Exelon: From Bad to Worse

You could smell blood in the water.

ComEd had taken out a political contract on former CUB Director Marty Cohen, casting the Senate Democrats as their anti-consumer allies. Not a good position to be in for a Democrat, especially with a major rate hike looming.

And it's only been two years since ComEd tried to pull a fast one on House Speaker Michael Madigan. Show of hands from everybody who thinks the Speaker has forgotten what they tried to pull? Nobody?!?

Things seemed bad enough for ComEd-Exelon, then things got much worse.

The AP reports today on the ongoing saga in Will and Grundy counties, where Exelon's nuclear power plants leaked radioactive waste. Today, Exelon offered to pick up the tab for new drinking wells - after federal, state and local tax resources are expended.

"We're doing this to demonstrate goodwill," he [Thomas O'Neill, Exelon vice president of regulatory and legal affairs] said.

The Will County state's attorney's office has said it began investigating why Exelon did not disclose until recently a series of tritium-containing wastewater leaks between 1996 and 2003 at its Braidwood Generating Station, located about 60 miles southwest of Chicago.

The company has said it also found elevated levels of radioactive tritium in water that leaked from the Byron Nuclear Generating Station and the Dresden Generating Station in Grundy County. Exelon has said the leaks were not a health or safety threat.

Tritium is a radioactive substance commonly found in small concentrations in most surface water, but is more concentrated in water used in nuclear reactors. Studies have shown long-term exposure-- through drinking or bathing-- can lead to cancer and birth defects.

Here's a tip for Exelon's Goodwill Generation Department: Stop misleading lawmakers, concealing potential health hazards from the public, and leaking potential carcinogens into the drinking water.

Did I forget anything?




6 comments:

Anonymous,  8:42 PM  

YDD,

"casting the Senate Democrats as their anti-consumer allies"???

The Senate Democrats are anti-consumer. Your statement makes the Senate Democrats sound like they were passive victims when in reality they were active participants in taking out Marty Cohen. At the very least Emil shares the blame.

As for "pull a fast one" two years ago, Emil passed the bill out of the Senate and Rod supported it, even when it was obvious Speaker Madigan was going to kill it. Emil and Rod have to share the blame.

Finally, Rod's ICC (he appointed Box, Lieberman, O'Connell-Diaz and Ford) just approved ComEd's auction. Rod has to share the blame.

Nevertheless, I agree with your central point that ComEd/Exelon is constantly trying to maximize profits at the expense of ratepayers and citizens. But let's not pretend it is occuring in a vacuum. Too many times the Democrats have their fingerprints all over these anti-consumer actions.

In terms of Exelon's goodwill, I don't think they are going to be worrying about that given the approval of the auction. Wall Street is going to reward them richly. There will be no rate freeze. Emil won't let it out of the Senate and even if by some miracle he did I have no faith that Rod would to anything. He has talked a good game recently about ComEd, but not taken one concrete step that has actually resulted in them being held accountable.

Yellow Dog Democrat 11:00 AM  

navin -

I don't pretend to know the will of Emil Jones. Maybe he will allow a floor vote on a rate freeze, maybe he won't. If it passes, the Governor will most certainly sign it.

If the rate freeze is killed in the Senate, you can bet that the Governor and Senate Democrats will be blamed equally.

Anonymous,  9:25 PM  

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Anonymous,  1:26 PM  

YDD,

Were you really unsure about how Emil felt about the rate hike issue?

In any event, Emil has cleared the air of any confusion as to where he stands on the issue by publicly stating that a rate freeze is "dumb".

You stated that the Governor and the Senate Democrats will be blamed equally if the rate hike is killed in the Senate. Any changes in that prediction or do you still stand by it?

Progressives in this state might as well move on to the next battle, because Democratic leadership isn't going to do much to help consumers when it comes to utilities. I know they supported the initial rate freeze and an extension of the rate freeze, but those warm fuzzy feelings won't do much to help with electric bills starting in January of 2007.

Anonymous,  1:47 PM  

YDD,

I saw your post on Cap Fax and see that you are sticking to your prediction.

You have been an ardent supporter of Democrats in all of your postings I have read and it says a lot that Emil lost you on this one.

Personally, I am disappointed by Emil, but I can't say I'm surprized.

Anonymous,  7:16 PM  

The only thing Emil is missing is a ComEd Employee ID card. He held his big political fundraiser at whose house? Frank Clark's house. That's right, THAT Frank Clark, President of ComEd. Jones must have nothing but utter contempt for his own constituents.

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