Reply to the other Guy on Gas Line in Lake Worth

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The guy with the noodle just wrote a blog on the natural gas line that leaves out some vital facts. He tries so hard but opens mouth and inserts foot...cute graphic though. An example of his foot and mouth disease is making stuff up because of his blind and fierce loyalty to the present commission. He once again attempts to re-invent the wheel (revisionism) and twist the narrative--the facts...and trying to find blame and putting it anywhere but where it should be.

The truth of the matter (from an expert in the field with expertise on Lake Worth Utilities) is as follows--his remarks are in quotations:

"The gas line he is referring to was installed for the explicit purpose of the generator that was originally Enron that went bankrupt in December 2001. (Those were the days of Ramiccio followed by Romano as well as present day commissioner, Scott Maxwell, the one who made the motion to eventually go with FMPA). The main problem was that the attorney for LW never requested a performance bond to protect the interest of LW should the project fail as it ultimately did." The site lease was signed by Robert Baldwin, Interim City manager and four other top executives of the City.

"When LW entered into the All Requirements agreement with FMPA, they (FMPA) paid the cost of the gas line as part of capacity payments for the standby generation at the LW power plant." To further explain, the site lease with FMPA gave them the right to build new and more efficient quick start units at our site to improve generation reliability. They also were to pay for our natural gas supplier, Florida Public Utilities, for the gas line supplying fuel to our plants. They did this up and until we gave them notice to exit. These unpaid costs went into a legal dispute.

Five years ago, FMPA's legal counsel appeared before the city commission and began tightening the noose around our necks when they heard we were leaving FMPA. He talked about their involvement with building two nuclear facilities in Levy County. The city did not want to pay for two nuclear power reactors that were going to cost $17 billion dollars. Once we gave notice to exit FMPA, it played hardball and stuck us with a $60,000 a month bill for a natural gas line. The gas line runs from the Turnpike to our power plant.

So, FMPA screwed us on the gas line charge the entire five years we were exiting All Requirements but Lake Worth, petrified of lawsuits and forever acting like a deer in the headlights at even the mere mention of  a lawsuit, cried foul. If FMPA replied with a resounding "get lost" and the City folded, we the people were not told about any decision or outcome.

Have they been able to offset the lost revenues from FMPA?  The utility department is not talking about these lost revenues. One can't say LW Utilities has a very good track record with providing facts and trust, so to provide us with public information isn't exactly transparent. As a guest blogger wrote last year, "If the new costs under the contract with Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) are integrated into the cost the ratepayers are now getting as of October 1, 2013, what is the cost difference between what LW is/was and the fully loaded cost to purchase a megawatt of power from FMPA and the new cost to purchase that same megawatt of power from OUC? That question has never been fully explored or explained" and this commission never asked.

In January 2014, the LW commission began its relationship with OUC after interviewing many power suppliers. "They entered into the new agreement for purchased power from OUC in addition to losing about 4 million dollars annually for capacity credits."

Florida Public Utilities is upgrading new pipes and gas lines in three separate phases in the alleyways throughout Lake Worth,  Phase I consisted of 26,000 feet of line. All of it should be completed in the Fall of this year.