It’s all very clever and very slick, but Time got it wrong. The person on the cover should have been, without question, Mohamed Bouazizi.

1. Page: NA 9 PubDate: 01-11-2012 Time: 01-10-2012 17:43 Product: TAM_Tribune Edition: 1 User: tbuggica Color: K
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Pull plug on power cost-recovery scheme
I
n 2006, the Florida Legisla- not be a partisan issue, and According to Progress Energy
ture passed a bill — Senate that’s why state Rep. Michele filings with the PSC, an average
Bill 888 — that included a Rehwinkel-Vasilinda has a simi- customer would see an estimat-
provision allowing investor- lar bill in the House, HB 4301. ed increase of nearly $50 per
owned utilities such as Progress As a staunch advocate for month per 1,000 kilowatts by
Energy to charge ratepayers for consumers in Florida, I believe 2020 from the Levy County
construction costs that protecting our citizens’ plant. Check your bill because
for new nuclear pocketbooks, particularly in these many people use 2,000 kilowatts
plants before the trying economic times, is of the or more. Naturally, larger elec-
plant is built and utmost importance. In Florida, tricity users, such as businesses
delivering power. allowing utilities to recover the and industrial users, would pay
I voted for the costs of a new power plant be- even more. Those on fixed in-
legislation based fore the plant is placed in service comes, especially senior citi-
Mike on the informa- and regardless of whether such a zens, will have a difficult time
Fasano tion and analysis plant is ever even completed is adjusting to such increases.
of costs provided unfair to consumers and bad Just recently, the PSC voted
at that time. Just to start, cost public policy. Moreover, it shifts once again in favor of the util-
estimates we were provided in the risk from private companies ities and against these diverse WFLA TV
2006 have escalated three to to ratepayers, yet utility share- constituencies. In spite of the
four times. holders still benefit from all the fact that the utilities haven’t business afloat. Why should keep in their pockets instead of
As I see the law’s conse- profits — in this case a guaran- even committed to actually people pay now for something sending to the power compa-
quences to Florida families and teed rate of return on their capi- building the new reactors, the that may never benefit them? nies is a dollar that can help
businesses, I’ve changed my tal expenditures. PSC just approved an additional Who would ever agree to pro- strengthen Florida’s economy.
mind about the wisdom of such When I originally supported $282 million in cost recovery for vide an interest-free loan to It is the duty of lawmakers to
a policy that is bad both for the advanced cost recovery, I Progress Energy and FPL. someone (in this case, to multi- protect our consumers and let
consumers and our state. never thought the Florida Public I am one who has traditional- billion-dollar utilities) who corporate risk be appropriately
This is why I am the prime Service Commission (PSC) ly supported nuclear power cannot guarantee that a product placed where it belongs — with
sponsor of SB 740, which would would turn a blind eye to the projects. But these dicey in- will even materialize? the shareholders and those who
repeal the advanced cost recov- high risks associated with such vestments ought to be the re- By further allowing utilities stand to profit. That’s how capi-
ery for new nuclear power capital-intensive and compli- sponsibility of utility sharehold- an unrestricted ability to pass talism is supposed to work. It’s
plants, such as are being pro- cated projects. I know that my ers and their investment part- on the costs of new power time to have it start working
posed by Progress in Levy fellow lawmakers did not intend ners who profit from them, not plants, policymakers are placing here in Florida.
County and at FPL’s Turkey to give utilities a blank check, the average ratepayer who is an undue financial burden
Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, repre-
Point plant near Miami. but that is in essence what has already struggling to pay the where it doesn’t belong. Every sents District 11 in the Florida Senate.
Protecting consumers should happened. monthly utility bill or keep a dollar citizens or businesses
Protesting Time’s choice for ‘Person of the Year’
T It’s all very clever and very slick, but Time got it wrong.
ime magazine began its tradition of In December 2010 Bouazizi was being
selecting a “Man of the Year” by shaken down by the local police for a
choosing Charles Lindbergh in The person on the cover should have been, without bribe he couldn’t pay. Accounts of the
1927. It seemed like a good idea then, encounter vary, but all agree that it was
considering Lindbergh’s solo non-stop question, Mohamed Bouazizi. violent, his weighing scale was confiscat-
flight across the Atlantic Ocean that year. ed and his produce tossed away. He
When Lindbergh received been bad fellows, of course. Mohandas Square in Egypt. The story itself begins tried to complain to officials, but no one
the Order of the German Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Pope John with text in the shape of a closed fist and would see him. Less than an hour later
Eagle from Hermann Gör- XXIII, Martin Luther King Jr. and Pope then photos of 39 people (and curiously, he lay dying after dousing himself with
ing, and when, after he John Paul II were deserving. one dog) labeled as “The Protester.” gasoline and setting himself afire.
died, it was revealed that But the latest selection is the worst It’s all very clever and very slick, but Thus began the Tunisian Revolution
he had several mistresses mistake Time has ever made. Time got it wrong. The person on the and what historians will forever call the
and seven children in To refresh, “The Protester” was cover should have been, without ques- Arab Spring, as protestors throughout
Steven Germany, it wasn’t seen as named Dec. 15 Time’s 2011 “Person of tion, Mohamed Bouazizi. the Middle East caused governments to
Solomon quite so appropriate. the Year.” If you didn’t see it, the cover Known as Basboosa where he lived in change in Egypt and Libya and regimes
Time has selected far was an illustration of what appears to be Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, the 26-year-old quit to falter in Syria and Yemen.
more dubious individuals than Lind- a woman with a head-cover and scarf school in his late teens to work full-time A small photo of Bouazizi is on page
bergh for its annual cover. Hitler, Stalin around her face set in front of a montage as a produce seller to support his moth- 57 of Time’s Jan. 2 issue if you want to
(twice), Khrushchev and the Ayatollah of people who look like Occupy Wall er, stepfather and siblings. He hoped to see what a hero looks like.
Khomeini also were chosen over the Street picketers. one day be able to buy a pickup truck.
years. Not a nice group of guys. Inside, the story continues with a He reportedly gave free fruit and vegeta- Steven Solomon is a correspondent for The Tampa
Tribune Editorial Department.
The 80-plus picked to date haven’t all full-page photo of protestors in Tahir bles to the poor.
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