Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chuck Douglas in the Power Hour six ten WUTV. And
it's our last time together during the Power Hour portion
of the afternoon for this week. I mean, we'll do
it again Monday, but there is no Friday show it
of course, even I get a couple of days off
for the weekend. Here's something you don't see every day, zact.
Here's something you don't see you ready, we're building a
state of the art acts throwing facility in Grove City.
(00:22):
Oh those are fun, man, Yeah, I've never I However,
we may have to learn how to do that to
hunt for food. Of the utilities keep up the way
they're going.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
They're pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I've been to one. I was in Chicago. You have
to wear a plaid shirt. No you don't.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
They give you like minimal instructions.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And we were allowed to drink at the one sharp
objects flying through the air with minimal instruction. That right there,
My friend is a party.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yes, it was good times and we were drinking too.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Of course, what could go wrong? AEP rates going up
June first, that's with neuron. It's twenty seven dollars on average.
It's going to be more for me. If your luck
is anything like mine, yours will be too, because they
are saying the data centers largely are requiring all this
new power. And keep in mind, folks, they ain't done
building yet, so you know it's gonna go up again
(01:08):
with the same excuse. And I just don't think it's
our responsibility to pay for their their there quenched or
unquenched thirst for electricity. They should pay it. There should
be a surg charge. If you are in a business
like that, it should fall on you to pay that.
And I think, I think, I think that's a reasonable state.
(01:30):
I'm glad to have them here, don't get me wrong.
Great to have new corporate business coming in and uh,
you know, hopefully thousands of people around the state getting employed,
and those people spending money and making money on which
they'll pay income taxes, and and buying stuff with they'll
pay sales taxes, and buying homes for what they'll pay
property taxes because you know there's and after all those taxes,
(01:53):
hopefully they can still pay the utilities. I'm just saying,
it's it's it's not it's not right, for lack of
a better term, for everybody to get all happy that
this business is coming to the state of Ohio only
to find out that it's going to cost you a
two on a two one WTV And Pete has been
(02:16):
on hold since nineteen sixty three, so you're up, Pete?
How are you?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Listen, I agree with everything that you're saying. And maybe
you said this earlier. I might have missed it. But
obviously these data centers are going to be using more electricity,
so AEP will be making enough money off of that.
You know they'll be making uh So, I don't you know,
(02:44):
why do they need to pass the buck onto us
when again, they'll be making plenty money off the extra
electricity that the data centers will be using. Something tells
me it's just a backdoor deal that was agreed upon
by AP and Google and et cetera. And and you
mentioned earlier, you know that it's putting it on us
(03:07):
as an excuse I can. I think a better word
would be a lie. It's they're they're they based. I
think AP was just looking for an opportunity to jack
up the rates, and now they they can do it
with justification, with minimal complaint. They can just say, hey,
you know this is this needs to be done and
we're gonna this and this is why we're going to
(03:28):
do it, and people are just going to bend over
and take it because we're used to everything increasing nowadays.
You know, we can't A lot of people probably think, well,
we can't fight anything else. We can't do anything about
gas prices, food prices, et cetera. So this is just
one more thing.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We have to deal with and p You know what,
when when you're bringing in a company like this or
a business like this, I think it would be reasonable
to say it's incumbent upon the powers that be, whether
it's legislature, the governor's office, the Utilities Commission, whatever. You
know what they do, you know how they do it.
You see what they've done in other states and the
kind of energy drawing. I don't think it will be
(04:01):
out of the question to make that part of the
negotiations to bring the companies in. You don't want to
bend over backwards or forwards, or frankly bend over at
all just to get the companies to come in here.
You know. It's uh kind of the same thing you
tell your kid when they start dating as a teenager.
You want to be respected for what you have to offer.
(04:24):
Don't just you know, start ripping off your clothes and
laying down in front of whoever says hello to you
be respected for what you have to offer. And I
don't think necessarily that when we were putting all these
deals together, the people representing the interest of the state
of Ohio, we're doing that so desperate to have the
attention of wonderful intel that we forgot to say, Hey,
(04:46):
by the way, we're a pretty damn good catch. Or again,
maybe that's just me A two n WTV and John,
you are in the Legacy Retirement Ooh, I like line
for a JP standby John, You're on the Legacy Retirement
Group dot com phone lines.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Hi, Hi, Hey, just like to respond to the gentlemans
before me. The reasons they're doing it is called stockholders
number one. I want to know what utilities are doing
with stockholders number two, Like the water company, you're not
(05:23):
allowed to have a barrel outside of your house and
collect rain.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Well, I think you can have the barrel outside as
long as it is not for potable water, not for
drinking water. You can use it for your garden and
things like that. But John, that's where I started the
show off. I don't believe things that are essential for life,
like keeping your house warm in the winter, like keeping
the heat on in the winter, or you know, running
at least a fan in the summer, or being able
(05:49):
to bathe or flush or drink to sustain life. I
don't think those things should have been turned into profit
centers in the first place, but they are, and we
have to deal with it. It gets particularly offensive when
you have an entity like a government into the city
of Columbus, owning your water and sewer and willing to
cut your butt off. If you're laid on that page,
you need it to live, man, You need it to live,
(06:12):
And to cut something off that is essential for life
is just obscene to me.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yes, how about we just turn around and limit the
amount of profit a stockholder can get. How about you
put some type of regulation. Hey, this is a utility.
You know, if you want to buy the stock, you
know you're not going to make a million dollars. I mean,
I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I appreciate what you're saying, and don't I don't argue
with you. The trouble is, I guess I want common sense.
I'm so sick of legislation. We legislate everything. I just
I would like a little common sense, common decency to
apply to everything. Quite frankly, A two one nine at
(07:00):
eighty six eight two one WUTV And I got to
get this guy on JV Blackwell. I was talking about
him earlier. You are officially with the Office of the Consumer's.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Council, right, yes, And I'm calling with my Ohio Consumers
Council hat on all right, and my ears were burning though, Jock.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Well, good, I want him to burn. I'd give a
nice chan early in the season. Tell me JP what
the meeting was held January third, which I think was
a really stupid time for the PUCO to hold a
meeting like this. But that aside, did this this attempt
at an agreement fail and fall flat on its face
where they were trying to protect the consumers for any
(07:40):
increased cost?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Well, these things move kind of slowly and real quickly.
I agree with you. I'd like to see the PUCO
hold its meetings at times that are more accessible to
the public. How about six o'clock on a Tuesday evening.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That would be great. Yeah, after we're done stimulating the economy.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
There you go, oh, there you go. So to put
a little context. There's a case before the PUCO right
now and it's about it's specifically about AP and how
data centers are paying for their electricity, and it's still ongoing.
Another I need to do so much context, but we're
(08:22):
we're the Ohio Consumers Council. We are the state agency
that's appointed to represent consumers in matters related to their
regulated utilities. So we are participating in this case and
we want to make sure that costs aren't shifted from
the data centers to the residential consumers. You know, you know,
(08:45):
to one extent, you know, they're going to pay for
the electricity they used, but what about the transmission facilities
and the terribly expensive infrastructure that goes to get the
electricity to those facilities. We are wanting to make sure
that the residents well, that the causers of the costs
are paying for that, and that's the data centers and
(09:06):
crypto miners that are paying for that. And the case
is ongoing. In what's very unusual, uh AP and the
consumersk Council and a few others are on the same side.
Usually we're kind of buttonheads with AP. They've got a
job to do, but often we find ourselves on opposite
(09:26):
sides of the aisle in terms of uh, you know,
pc O settlements, but they actually have with us. There's
a settlement that really we think does a pretty good
job of separating out the data centers and setting up
some rules. They're going to make them, They're going to
(09:48):
make them pay the cost that they're generating for all
this extra transmission. There's another settlement that's put out by Microsoft, Google, Facebook,
I'm missing somebody, but big, big, big players.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
They probably Amazon.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
That is not so.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Friendly, not so friendly to consumers. And the puzio's job
is to accept one accept one settlement or the other,
or perhaps come to a compromise between the two settlements.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Will there be any further public hearings, any more input
from the consumers before this culminates in some sort of
vote or whatever on the agreement.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
No more hearings, But it's never too late to call
the Public Utilities Commission or it's a little complicated that
they could actually go online and make a comment in
the case. And when you make a comment on a case,
the commissioners are required to consider that as evidence in
the case. So if you want to say, if you
(10:54):
want to make a comment on this case and say
how you think this affects you. We really encourage consumers
to do that because although we're the state agency that
represents consumers, there's something a little more powerful about consumers
picking up the phone and calling themselves. They're going online
and that they comments themselves.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
JP Blackwood, Ohio Consumers Counsel. Thank you for not only
checking in and giving us what you know, but for
being a listener. I appreciate you, buddy. I'm sure we
will talk again in the very near future.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
That would be great. I will send you the links
where people can comment if you're interested.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I appreciate it, and I'll get it on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. Thanks for joining me tonight on six' TEN
wtv
Chuck Douglas in the Power Hour six ten WUTV. And
it's our last time together during the Power Hour portion
of the afternoon for this week. I mean, we'll do
it again Monday, but there is no Friday show it
of course, even I get a couple of days off
for the weekend. Here's something you don't see every day, zact.
Here's something you don't see you ready, we're building a
state of the art acts throwing facility in Grove City.
(00:22):
Oh those are fun, man, Yeah, I've never I However,
we may have to learn how to do that to
hunt for food. Of the utilities keep up the way
they're going.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
They're pretty fun.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
I've been to one. I was in Chicago. You have
to wear a plaid shirt. No you don't.
Speaker 3 (00:34):
They give you like minimal instructions.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
And we were allowed to drink at the one sharp
objects flying through the air with minimal instruction. That right there,
My friend is a party.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Yes, it was good times and we were drinking too.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Of course, what could go wrong? AEP rates going up
June first, that's with neuron. It's twenty seven dollars on average.
It's going to be more for me. If your luck
is anything like mine, yours will be too, because they
are saying the data centers largely are requiring all this
new power. And keep in mind, folks, they ain't done
building yet, so you know it's gonna go up again
(01:08):
with the same excuse. And I just don't think it's
our responsibility to pay for their their there quenched or
unquenched thirst for electricity. They should pay it. There should
be a surg charge. If you are in a business
like that, it should fall on you to pay that.
And I think, I think, I think that's a reasonable state.
(01:30):
I'm glad to have them here, don't get me wrong.
Great to have new corporate business coming in and uh,
you know, hopefully thousands of people around the state getting employed,
and those people spending money and making money on which
they'll pay income taxes, and and buying stuff with they'll
pay sales taxes, and buying homes for what they'll pay
property taxes because you know there's and after all those taxes,
(01:53):
hopefully they can still pay the utilities. I'm just saying,
it's it's it's not it's not right, for lack of
a better term, for everybody to get all happy that
this business is coming to the state of Ohio only
to find out that it's going to cost you a
two on a two one WTV And Pete has been
(02:16):
on hold since nineteen sixty three, so you're up, Pete?
How are you?
Speaker 3 (02:20):
Hey?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Listen, I agree with everything that you're saying. And maybe
you said this earlier. I might have missed it. But
obviously these data centers are going to be using more electricity,
so AEP will be making enough money off of that.
You know they'll be making uh So, I don't you know,
(02:44):
why do they need to pass the buck onto us
when again, they'll be making plenty money off the extra
electricity that the data centers will be using. Something tells
me it's just a backdoor deal that was agreed upon
by AP and Google and et cetera. And and you
mentioned earlier, you know that it's putting it on us
(03:07):
as an excuse I can. I think a better word
would be a lie. It's they're they're they based. I
think AP was just looking for an opportunity to jack
up the rates, and now they they can do it
with justification, with minimal complaint. They can just say, hey,
you know this is this needs to be done and
we're gonna this and this is why we're going to
(03:28):
do it, and people are just going to bend over
and take it because we're used to everything increasing nowadays.
You know, we can't A lot of people probably think, well,
we can't fight anything else. We can't do anything about
gas prices, food prices, et cetera. So this is just
one more thing.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
We have to deal with and p You know what,
when when you're bringing in a company like this or
a business like this, I think it would be reasonable
to say it's incumbent upon the powers that be, whether
it's legislature, the governor's office, the Utilities Commission, whatever. You
know what they do, you know how they do it.
You see what they've done in other states and the
kind of energy drawing. I don't think it will be
(04:01):
out of the question to make that part of the
negotiations to bring the companies in. You don't want to
bend over backwards or forwards, or frankly bend over at
all just to get the companies to come in here.
You know. It's uh kind of the same thing you
tell your kid when they start dating as a teenager.
You want to be respected for what you have to offer.
(04:24):
Don't just you know, start ripping off your clothes and
laying down in front of whoever says hello to you
be respected for what you have to offer. And I
don't think necessarily that when we were putting all these
deals together, the people representing the interest of the state
of Ohio, we're doing that so desperate to have the
attention of wonderful intel that we forgot to say, Hey,
(04:46):
by the way, we're a pretty damn good catch. Or again,
maybe that's just me A two n WTV and John,
you are in the Legacy Retirement Ooh, I like line
for a JP standby John, You're on the Legacy Retirement
Group dot com phone lines.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
Hi, Hi, Hey, just like to respond to the gentlemans
before me. The reasons they're doing it is called stockholders
number one. I want to know what utilities are doing
with stockholders number two, Like the water company, you're not
(05:23):
allowed to have a barrel outside of your house and
collect rain.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Well, I think you can have the barrel outside as
long as it is not for potable water, not for
drinking water. You can use it for your garden and
things like that. But John, that's where I started the
show off. I don't believe things that are essential for life,
like keeping your house warm in the winter, like keeping
the heat on in the winter, or you know, running
at least a fan in the summer, or being able
(05:49):
to bathe or flush or drink to sustain life. I
don't think those things should have been turned into profit
centers in the first place, but they are, and we
have to deal with it. It gets particularly offensive when
you have an entity like a government into the city
of Columbus, owning your water and sewer and willing to
cut your butt off. If you're laid on that page,
you need it to live, man, You need it to live,
(06:12):
And to cut something off that is essential for life
is just obscene to me.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Yes, how about we just turn around and limit the
amount of profit a stockholder can get. How about you
put some type of regulation. Hey, this is a utility.
You know, if you want to buy the stock, you
know you're not going to make a million dollars. I mean,
I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
I appreciate what you're saying, and don't I don't argue
with you. The trouble is, I guess I want common sense.
I'm so sick of legislation. We legislate everything. I just
I would like a little common sense, common decency to
apply to everything. Quite frankly, A two one nine at
(07:00):
eighty six eight two one WUTV And I got to
get this guy on JV Blackwell. I was talking about
him earlier. You are officially with the Office of the Consumer's.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Council, right, yes, And I'm calling with my Ohio Consumers
Council hat on all right, and my ears were burning though, Jock.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Well, good, I want him to burn. I'd give a
nice chan early in the season. Tell me JP what
the meeting was held January third, which I think was
a really stupid time for the PUCO to hold a
meeting like this. But that aside, did this this attempt
at an agreement fail and fall flat on its face
where they were trying to protect the consumers for any
(07:40):
increased cost?
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Well, these things move kind of slowly and real quickly.
I agree with you. I'd like to see the PUCO
hold its meetings at times that are more accessible to
the public. How about six o'clock on a Tuesday evening.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
That would be great. Yeah, after we're done stimulating the economy.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
There you go, oh, there you go. So to put
a little context. There's a case before the PUCO right
now and it's about it's specifically about AP and how
data centers are paying for their electricity, and it's still ongoing.
Another I need to do so much context, but we're
(08:22):
we're the Ohio Consumers Council. We are the state agency
that's appointed to represent consumers in matters related to their
regulated utilities. So we are participating in this case and
we want to make sure that costs aren't shifted from
the data centers to the residential consumers. You know, you know,
(08:45):
to one extent, you know, they're going to pay for
the electricity they used, but what about the transmission facilities
and the terribly expensive infrastructure that goes to get the
electricity to those facilities. We are wanting to make sure
that the residents well, that the causers of the costs
are paying for that, and that's the data centers and
(09:06):
crypto miners that are paying for that. And the case
is ongoing. In what's very unusual, uh AP and the
consumersk Council and a few others are on the same side.
Usually we're kind of buttonheads with AP. They've got a
job to do, but often we find ourselves on opposite
(09:26):
sides of the aisle in terms of uh, you know,
pc O settlements, but they actually have with us. There's
a settlement that really we think does a pretty good
job of separating out the data centers and setting up
some rules. They're going to make them, They're going to
(09:48):
make them pay the cost that they're generating for all
this extra transmission. There's another settlement that's put out by Microsoft, Google, Facebook,
I'm missing somebody, but big, big, big players.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
They probably Amazon.
Speaker 3 (10:05):
That is not so.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Friendly, not so friendly to consumers. And the puzio's job
is to accept one accept one settlement or the other,
or perhaps come to a compromise between the two settlements.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Will there be any further public hearings, any more input
from the consumers before this culminates in some sort of
vote or whatever on the agreement.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
No more hearings, But it's never too late to call
the Public Utilities Commission or it's a little complicated that
they could actually go online and make a comment in
the case. And when you make a comment on a case,
the commissioners are required to consider that as evidence in
the case. So if you want to say, if you
(10:54):
want to make a comment on this case and say
how you think this affects you. We really encourage consumers
to do that because although we're the state agency that
represents consumers, there's something a little more powerful about consumers
picking up the phone and calling themselves. They're going online
and that they comments themselves.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
JP Blackwood, Ohio Consumers Counsel. Thank you for not only
checking in and giving us what you know, but for
being a listener. I appreciate you, buddy. I'm sure we
will talk again in the very near future.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
That would be great. I will send you the links
where people can comment if you're interested.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
I appreciate it, and I'll get it on Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram. Thanks for joining me tonight on six' TEN
wtv
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