DEAR EDITOR:

Re: Milt Aitken letter, "Cobb EMC's rates, new coal plant make little sense," Sept. 11 MDJ

Mr. Aitken's guest column was thoroughly disingenuous. Mr. Aitken is apparently trying to create some sort of rate revolt among members, preying on people that don't know the facts by providing misinformation and half-truths. Well, we do know the facts and are happy to share them.

Mr. Aitken claims that his Cobb EMC bills are much higher this summer than last. Really? It's convenient that he did not offer to produce those bills because if he did it would show that not only were his bills not higher this summer compared to last, they were lower.

He further offers that his cost for electricity exceeded 14 cents per kilowatt hour while "friends who live near him, but use Georgia Power" paid only 9.2 cents per kilowatt hour. Wrong again. At no point during this summer has Mr. Aitken's residential rate exceeded 14 cents per kilowatt hour and he cannot produce a bill that would substantiate his allegation. As for Georgia Power, their published rates would yield costs far higher than what Mr. Aitken was quoted by his friends.

An article from the Wall Street Journal is quoted in his column as citing a decrease in spot market prices for electricity being caused by lower demand. However, that is only a fraction of the story he shared with us. The article also noted that most power providers have long-term contracts through which they acquire their electricity and therefore fluctuations in spot market prices would not affect their costs. That would apply to Cobb EMC, but that fact apparently didn't serve Mr. Aitken's purpose.

Mr. Aitken goes on to claim that "Cobb EMC rates continue to rise dramatically." He's wrong. The truth is, Cobb EMC costs to consumers declined for the period from 1993 to 2008 by 4 percent and it was the only EMC among the nation's 15 largest that could claim a reduction. In fact, some of the other top 15 rose by as much as 67 percent. During the same timeframe Cobb EMC members received more than $33 million in rebates, all while the co-op built and deployed one of the most advanced power management control systems in the industry.

We were able to achieve this record because we utilize every energy generation resource available and that is what we will continue to do in the future. We have consulted with professional engineers with expertise in the energy industry and they agree that a coal plant is a vital piece of the equation and still the most economical choice available even considering a potential carbon tax. This is because the plant is not only needed for projected growth, but to replace contracted power supplies that will expire soon.

Finally, Mr. Aitken suggests we promote roof top solar systems for Cobb businesses and he did correctly acknowledge that we offer incentives to residential customers for the installation of solar panels. To the best of our knowledge however, Mr. Aitken has never participated in any of our solar or green power initiatives at his home or business and we would be more than happy to have him join the programs he advocated in his column.

Sam Kelly
Vice President of Public Relations
Cobb EMC