It's only the cost of a Big Mac meal: My dislike for Duke Energy grows over rate increase requests

Wilbur Ross and Bo Somers must be two peas in a pod. They may not look alike but their take on increasing the price of consumer goods is nearly identical.

Ross is a billionaire and the current Secretary of Commerce in the Trump Administration. Here’s how he justified price increases due to tariffs on steel and aluminum: "In a can of Campbell's Soup, there are about 2.6 pennies worth of steel. So if that goes up by 25 percent, that's about six-tenths of 1 cent on the price on a can of Campbell's Soup. I just bought this can today at a 7-Eleven ... and it was priced at a $1.99. Who in the world is going to be too bothered?"

Somers is Duke Energy Deputy General Counsel who is defending proposed rate increases for his boss before the North Carolina Utilities Commission: “One extra Big Mac, fries and a drink.” He was saying that consumers need not worry about a request for an additional $5.99 a month because it’s what you would pay for a McDonald’s value meal as he described. Obviously, he wants McDonald’s to suffer (not to mention thousands of his customers) so Duke can get its rate increase.

To paraphrase others before me, “You Just Can’t Make This Stuff Up.” That these two somewhat reputable representatives of government and a major utility would say these things is simply showing their stupidity and lack of concern for the well-being of citizens and customers. While Ross has no control over his boss, Somers is representing the monopoly utility in a request to further plunder its customers which have no alternative solution to turning on the lights, refrigerating food  or washing clothes. Fortunately, natural gas is available to some of us for heating water and using a stove.

In late January on the op-ed page of The News & Observer, I opined about my love-hate relationship with Duke Energy, loving that electricity flows to my home when I need it, which is usually all the time, and hating the company when I learn of the power company’s greedy requests for rate increases while freely spending profits to increase stock value.

Since then, I’ve had a slight change of heart on the love side. As one of its customers, I do not love Duke Energy. Better said, I may “appreciate” the Charlotte-based utility which supplies electricity to my home. But, the way I see it, just as good, inexpensive health care is a right not a privilege, electricity at a reasonable price is a must for people’s existence. It has become a right.

While I appreciate, but not love, Duke Energy, my dislike grows stronger with every rate increase request and stupid statements from company executives such as Somers.

Duke Energy should not be allowed to flex its monetary muscle and overcharge its customers. With cuts in tax rates, Duke is trying to determine where to place increased profits. More than likely it will be used to drive upward the value of its stock so executives such as Duke CEO Lynn Good can be paid $21.4 million as she was in 2017. She’s just doing her job but with the aid and abet of operating a regulated monopoly that is allowed a decent yet absurd amount of profit, mankind be damned. When the desired level of surplus gross income is not generated, she and her large team of lawyers and lobbyists ask for a rate increase, even for grossly mismanaged over-planning.

Duke spent $640 million to plan but not build a nuclear plant in Cherokee County in western North Carolina. The company has asked the Utility Commission for a rate increase to recover the expenditure. Duke also wants to recover all expenses related to cleaning up coal ash when the company is responsible for making the mess in the first place. If the Utility Commission approves it, the increase should be only for the value of dollars at the time of the original storage. So, if the coal ash was stored in 1980, the cost of cleanup in 1980 dollars is what Duke should get, if anything at all. The company also spent $110,000,000 to fight for the right to water flow of the Catawba River and lost. Now Duke wants a rate increase to recover that expenditure, most of which was accumulated on the appeal process after being denied at first.

Duke will pay out a $3.56 per share dividend in 2018. That doesn’t sound like a lot when you say it as a per share basis, sort of like the can of Campbell’s Soup analogy or the reference to a Big Mac meal price. But, with more than 700.61 million outstanding shares, Duke Energy this year alone will pay nearly $2.5 billion dollars in dividends: $2,494,353,160. In 2017, it was similar.

Add to that nearly $300,000,000 is reduced corporate taxes after the rate falls to 21% from 35%, and that’s a whole bunch of money. When spent on itself while asking for rate increases, it’s no wonder that my dislike for Duke Energy has grown. And when someone such as Somers asks customers to give up a Big Mac meal once a month, you just want to cry, but you have to laugh. And, get upset. It’s just $5.99, but on the other hand, it’s just $2.5 billion in stock dividends.

2018 NC State football: 8-4 overall; 4-4 ACC

The 2018 NC State football schedule was released yesterday. My quick prediction is for an overall 8-4 record and a 4-4 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference. There is no in-depth basis for this, just a gut feeling.

It will be Dave Doeren's sixth season, and, though he loses several excellent and key players, the Wolfpack should not only return a lot of good athletes, but it should also now be in a position to reload instead of wait another five seasons for a good team.

State has five home games in its first six, and program excitement should be at a season peak after the Wolfpack starts 6-0. Though not the easiest of non-conference games, tilts at home versus James Madison (Sept 1) and Georgia State (Sept 8) should be definite wins. There is no way in you-know-what that the Wolfpack program should ever lose to either of those.

With the team riding high from a two-game winning streak, West Virginia comes to Raleigh (Sept 15). The Wolfpack ekes out a third win. Interesting note: The Mountaineers current stadium in Morgantown is pretty much a duplicate of Carter-Finley Stadium, at least the original parts of both. When the program decided to build a new stadium in the late 1970s, NC State's stadium and plans were the basis for new digs. The Wolfpack will see it first hand in 2019. But I digress.

Next State travels to the state of West Virginia to play at Marshall (Sept 22). It's a tough road trip, but again, there is no way the program at Marshall should be as good as the program at NC State, especially in Doeren's sixth season of reloading and not rebuilding. The Wolfpack gets its fourth victory, all non-conference.

Now, for the start of tough stuff, the ACC schedule. First up is Virginia (Sept 29). It's a home game, the crowd should be rowdy and supportive, and the team should respond with a fifth straight win. The same for the next week when Boston College (Oct 6) plays in Carter-Finley Stadium. After six games, the Wolfpack should be 6-0, 2-0, heading into the final six games.

There are just two additional games in October, at Clemson (Oct 20) after an open date and at Syracuse (Oct 27). In my humble opinion and without knowing how good or bad Syracuse will be, NC State drops two straight and, after eight games, rests at 6-2 overall and 2-2 in the ACC.

The remainder of the schedule brings Florida State (Nov 3) and Wake Forest (Nov 8 and a quick turn-around) to Raleigh. Here's where science enters in: the Seminoles have a new coach and will be feeling its way along in 2018, and there is no way the Wolfpack should lose two in a row to Wake Forest. If Florida State is average, and if the Wolfpack doesn't take the Deacons too lightly as the Pck did last year, NC State gets two solid conference wins and is 8-2 and 4-2.

To make my math work, the Wolfpack loses at Louisville (the Cardinals need the home conference win to round out a good season) and at North Carolina (which can't possibly lose three in a row to what is now the Tar Heels biggest conference rival) to complete the season (8-4 and 4-4) and heads to a lower ACC tie-in bowl to play a directional team.

That's after coming off the 2017 disappointing (yes, disappointing because the Wolfpack left a lot on the table in the two conference losses, Clemson and Wake Forest, and one non-league game, South Carolina) 9-4, 6-2, Sun Bowl winner season.

Maybe 8-4 sounds good, but 4-4 in the ACC does not. So, after the 2018 season, the Wolfpack, under Doeren, goes to 42-34 overall and 19-29 in the ACC.

Your thoughts about my thoughts? You can agree, disagree and/or post a comment in the comment section below!
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If you didn't notice, the Wolfpack has seven home games: Season tickets are on sale now. Click "Wolfpack football season tickets" for more information.
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Joe Giglio at the News & Observer agrees with my record prediction: 8-4, 4-4. Read it here:
https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/article215094070.html

Beer and Pistachios! Better than "rope and corn"

My friend, Jim Valvano, (yes the Jim Valvano who coached the NC State Wolfpack to the 1983 NCAA National Championship and who died of cancer in 1993) used to joke about exercising and dieting.

“Exercise?” Jim would pilfer from other comedians while holding court in baseball coach Sam Esposito’s office just down the hall from his own on the top floor of the three story the Case Athletics Center. “When I get the urge, I usually just lie down and let it pass.”

He would joke about Jim Fixx, who wrote the best-seller “The Complete Book of Running” and started a fitness revolution in the United States. Valvano, in his early days at State, would say that Fixx would probably die while doing what he does best, running. Fixx, at the age of 52, died in July 1984 while running. He suffered a heart attack. Valvano quit telling that one.

There was never any evidence that Jim Valvano had organized and deliberate exercise unless you counted the energy he expended while coaching in practice and during games.

For a diet, Jim had many but his best was his “rope and corn” diet of late night after games in his office, a few feet from his cathedral, Reynolds Coliseum. His “rope” was a cigar, usually a brand that could have only been imported from, say, Cuba. And, “corn” was any variety of popcorn popped in the microwave. His diets usually worked for a while, but without exercising, his weight was dependant on eating less. And he kept in good shape.

Is there a point to this story? Yes, read on.

In the last 21 months, I’ve lost 30 pounds, due to exercise and diet and not from some medical condition. At age 65, both are important. In early April 2016 at a physical, I weighed 213.5 pounds. Prior to that, according to my faithful home scales, I was at least 215.

Today, I weigh 185, butt naked, of course. The first 10 pounds were easy, reducing intake, exercising a little with walks around the neighborhood. Losing the last 10 pounds has been tougher as has been maintaining my weight, though I would like to go lower, maybe to 180.

The exercise part is not effortless but it is routine. Daily, except some Sundays, I exercise. My wife and I go to the Workout Anytime in Cary. We each have our program. Mine is at least an hour on the treadmill, walking (no running) a minimum of 3.5 miles, sometimes longer and farther, sometimes at slight inclines (2-3 degrees). Then, if the urge hits, I lift weights, some free and some machine. We’re there no more than 90 minutes. 

There are days I miss Workout Anytime to play golf, walking 18 holes (about 8,000 yards) at hilly Lonnie Poole Golf Course, carrying my 23-pound bag of clubs and balls. This routine, either on the treadmill or on the golf course, is more than a year old.

Wonderful Pistachios

As far as my diet, well, because of weight loss, I’m not as hungry as I was so my diet can sometimes sound like Valvano’s “rope and corn” effort. But mine is better tasting than Jimmy's "rope and corn" diet. A few days ago, one of my golf partners asked what I had been doing to lose weight. (Glad he noticed.) I explained the exercise and then he asked about dieting.

“Currently, I’m on a beer and pistachios with a scoop of ice cream when desired,” I said. “Beer and pistachios before dinner. Ice cream after.” He laughed, thinking that was not the case, but it is. 

Even with a diet, I'm not depriving myself of drinking beer, but I do in moderation. I’m into any kind of nuts, usually peanuts and cashews, but recently my wife brought home a bag of Wonderful Pistachios. Now, a good combo for dieting is beer and pistachios; it requires arm lifts for the beer and it can be agonizing and difficult to pry open those pistachios. Always buy pistachios in the shells. Drink a high IBU IPA!

Reduced portions on my plate, not eating just to be eating and exercising are the keys to my weight loss and trimmer figure. Unfortunately, most of my clothes are too big for me, a much better situation that when I had a hard time fitting into them. And, fortunately, I think my bad cholesterol level is down, or at least it should be. I’ll find out at my next physical coming soon.