2002 03 11

to: Kentucky Senators, and Citizens they are supposed to serve:

Below is factual comparison of the 2 bills that have arisen from legislators attempting to address the absence of law in Kentucky protecting the sanctity of life and home from adventurous energy merchants seeking to feed Ohio's need for electricity now that Ohio's electricity utilities are deregulated (2001 Jan 01).

Kentucky remains regulated by the Public Service Commission (PSC). Since most electricity is produced from coal, abundant in Kentucky, Kentucky is the nation's low-cost leader in the price of electricity and therefore has no motivation to become deregulated. Already Kentucky produces a surplus 14,000 million kilowatt hours [US DOE, 2000]. We do not need new power plants in Kentucky. There is absolutely no basis to fear "rolling blackouts" to quote letters by Cinergy's agent, Senator Jack Westwood of Erlanger.

Current regulation is stable through 2006. This is a tribute to the effective management by the PSC, and explains why the new law, in either case, is based on extension of the PSC to now regulate otherwise unregulated, adventurist electricity merchants. More information and background is available at http://ncad.net.

Representative Jon Draud pre-filed House bill 24 last summer and found non-partisan approval leading to expansion of the bill to the current House Bill 540, which passed the House 84 - 14. Apparently more susceptible to $billion-Cinergy's lobby than to the widespread Citizen efforts to protect our homeland, Senators led by Jack Westwood are attempting to remove the teeth from HB 540 in the form of Senate Bill 257.

As indicated in the chart, the Senate Bill removes mandates for environmental study and public participation. Protection is reduced from 3000' to 2000', and no protection is provided for power plants burning 240,000,000 BTUs (24MW). SB257 allows the crafty electricity energy merchant to buy off the minimum number of agents, with the minimum public scrutiny.

Senators, please listen to those you are supposed to serve, lest we endeavor to find better Senators.

john r. schmidt, M.S.

Citizens for a Healthy Environment Everywhere Residential

President, NCAD Corporation

463 Erlanger Rd

Erlanger, KY 41018

859 727-9999

SB257 vs HB540

Item HB540 SB257

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Minimum Size (MW) 1.2.a 1.2.a

10 25

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Buffer (Feet) 3.3.b 3.2

3000 2000

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Residential Neighborhood 1.6 3.2

defined not defined

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Board Composition 2.1.d 2.1.d

2 local 1 local

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Environmental Report 4.2.f

full NR&EP none

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Environmental Compat. Rep 13.1

complete none

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Hearing & Public Meetings 6.1 6.1

Hearing & Public Meetings Hearing

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Public Notice 4.2.c 5.

30-day before none

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Public Involvement 4.2.h

encouraged none

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Communicate & Cooperate 4.2.i

encouraged none

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