August 26, 2008

Sorry KDH aka I missed this

Nags Head's web site has a notice that Dominion Power will begin work on new power lines along Rte. 158 shortly. Personally I like the look of the large poles without service lines in Nags Head south of the YMCA. I also respect the KDH view that they only need one corridor for power lines (There is only one in Nags Head).
The other side of this issue is that as much as local government may try to control (or over control... or ruin) their turf, there are some forces that simply walk all over them whenever they want. Charter and NC Power in particular do what they want when the want and don't really answer to the towns. The gas company moved without town franchises as well. They have less impact now but could have more later. Of these, Charter is by the worst. They basically told Dare County to buzz off when the county asked for a change in cable service. They told the county "it didn't fit their business model" despite county appeals for community service.
Dominion/NC Power works hard to avoid confrontations. They have great people with really good political skills. John Hughes (long retired) and Michael Thompson (now based in Raleigh) have few peers in developing commonality of interests with local governments. However on the few occasions where these efforts fail they know how to work the rest of the system to get their way. as KDH has recently learned.

The other side of this is that NC Power/Dominion has done a good job in improving service on the Outer Banks. Our rates are as low as any in the state and the company is a leader in the electric utility industry. Look for them to get the first permit for a new nuclear generating plant in the last 20+ years next year. Their North Anna reactors have helped dropped our rates from highest to lowest in the state of the last 2 decades.

Final note: NC Power was smart enough to wait unitl after Labor Day to start work on this project. Backing up summer traffic would not have made friends.
Ciao
PS. I am pretty sure we only own one house. Since I don't earn $5,000,000 per year I guess I am not rich. I can only hope that John McCain is ashamed of himself. I believe he knows how important the issues are that face this election and the Barack Obama is qualifed to be President. Why can't he just talk about what ails us? Why won't Obama? Why don't I?
We won't start to solve it until we do!

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1 Comments:

At 8:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

And Charter's stock prices are an indication to their community effort / support - having dropped in stock value 90% over the past 6 years – their monthly prices have increased regularly -
As well with all the "major" cable suppliers in the southeastern part of our country, the Charter group is not even opting to be attractive – high prices – poor service – low stock prices - do they smell like Global Crossing or even Enron?

 

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