Indicative of a Cheaper Electric Bill?

As I flipped through today's (Saturday, February 13) edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, I noticed the headline, "Expert: Entergy Poked in Chest." Being an Entergy customer, I was curious.

Basically, Entergy Arkansas is leaving a multi-state Entergy System Agreement, which was meant to share resources and operating costs. According to CB Online, the main reason for the departure is...

"Under the agreement, Entergy Arkansas paid nearly $400 million to the other operating companies in 2009, with most of that going to Entergy's Louisiana and Gulf States Louisiana companies."

The "other operating companies" mentioned above are Entergy Mississippi, Inc., Entergy Gulf States Louisiana, LLC, Entergy Louisiana, LLC, Entergy Texas, Inc. and Entergy New Orleans, Inc.. According to the original agreement, any company wishing to leave the agreement has to give advanced notice of at least eight years. In December of 2005, Entergy Arkansas gave its written notice to Entergy. This means Entergy Arkansas is still under Entergy rule until December of 2013. At this time, Entergy Arkansas can decide if it should be a stand-alone utility or get involved with another system agreement.

An article teaser from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette posted to ArkansasOnline (Thursday, February 11) states that the Arkansas Public Service Commission is attempting to step in and force Entergy Arkansas to become a stand-alone utility.

I wonder how Obama's cap-and-trade legislation (a.k.a. fecal energy tax) will affect the outcome of this venture for Entergy Arkansas ratepayers. To avoid a three-page blog, I will not get deep into cap-and-trade legislation. Here is a nifty video on the subject, instead. On a side note, Obama's bill is supposed to be on the table by April. I wonder if these actions will earn him another Nobel Peace Prize.

Back to the topic at hand, what will happen to Arkansas Nuclear One? I know it is owned by Entergy Arkansas, but Arkansas News reports "Nuclear One is among 10 units operated by Jacksonville, Miss.-based Entergy Nuclear." Since Entergy Arkansas will no longer be affiliated with Entergy Nuclear, as of Dec. 2013, will full control of the facility be turned over to Entergy Arkansas? Will Entergy Nuclear still have a hand in the plant? Or am I misunderstanding something?



[EDIT: For some reason, extra spaces appear where I do not want them. Above, Blogger inserted spaces before certain paragraphs, but it left other paragraphs alone. Even my quote has an extra space. Is poor coding on Blogger's part to blame? I looked for the extra spaces in my editor, but the spaces only appear after being published...it is annoying for obvious reasons.]