With approval of better OUC deal close, opponents of lower rates appear desperate

COMMENTARY

MARK SCHUMANN

FPL concludes City will be able to decommission the power plant as a part of a revised agreement with the Orlando Utilities Commission. The move will save ratepayers million every year. — FPL concluded the City will be able to decommission the power plant as a part of a revised agreement with the Orlando Utilities Commission. The move will save ratepayers millions of dollars every year.

Apparently desperate to derail approval of a revised contract between Vero Beach and the Orlando Utilities Commission, die-hard proponents of the stalled sale of Vero Electric to Florida Power & Light are spewing fourth a torrent of misinformation.

Ironically, though advocates of the sale claim to be focused on achieving lower rates, they remain steadfastly critical of every effort the current City Council is making to reduce rates in the absence of a sale.

On the front page of its October 1 edition, the island weekly, Vero Beach 32963, published a story by Lisa Zahner claiming that the City Council plans on making a final decision on the revisions to the OUC contract without the benefit of the results of an important transmission study by FPL.

Despite what 32963 reported, the OUC’s willingness to revise the terms of its wholesale power contract with Vero Beach is not contingent upon the City’s plans to decommission the power plant located along the Lagoon. Shutting down Big Blue, an old and inefficient plant is, however, integral to the City’s overall strategy for lowering rates.

In truth, FPL officials released the results of their study September 30, one day before 32963 headlined its lead story “No transmission study, but city still set to vote.”

FPL’s system impact study, released September 30, confirms there is enough intrastate transmission capacity to easily deliver from the OUC to Vero Beach enough power to allow for the decommissioning of Big Blue.

In his venomous “Utility Update” email newsletter released yesterday, south barrier island utility activist and malcontent, Steven Faherty, told his readers the results of the study would not be available until Nov. 15.

At this point, everything Faherty claims, and every word the island weekly publishes should be taken with a generous dose of skepticism. Certainly, it should be obvious to anyone who is paying attention that whatever Faherty and his friends at the island weekly are choosing to honor, and whatever is guiding their actions, it is not a commitment to reporting the truth.

Because the Stuart based Press Journal has become something less than a serious, responsible community newspaper, Faherty and his friends at the island weekly are seldom held accountable for their one-sided, biased, and often misleading reporting.

In an effort to arm the public with the truth, later this month InsideVero.com will publish a special print edition that will be mailed to more than 11,000 addresses within the City of Vero Beach. At the rate Faherty and friends are going, it may be necessary to devote an entire section of our special print edition to presenting a comprehensive report on their misreporting.

2 comments

These MEGA FOOLS will do anything to derail the lowering of everyone’s electric rates. Once again 32963 has been caught in the BIG LIE. Their latest tactic is stall the vote until after the November election where two new council could,IF ELECTED, derail this vote to lower our rates. This is 32963’s game plan. I suppose the Sept. 30th report doesn’t matter when trying to destroy the objective of lowering our rates. To some, truth and good reporting mean nothing when they have an agenda. The island rag has hit another all-time low, again.

I was watching the Finance/Utilities commissions joint meeting,today and was shocked by the performance of Charlie Wilson,who from the audience, put on a his typical Wilson diatribe . Sad!