All the hoopla over ratepayers having to start picking up the tab for electricity to be rendered by Georgia Power at a later date has elements of deja vu.

The "I've seen this movie before" feeling comes from hearing the same arguments that have often been used in the public domain. How many times have you heard someone say, "I don't have kids in school so why should I pay school taxes?" How about, "That bridge won't be ready for use for five years. Why do I have to start paying for it now?"

The answers are so obvious that you wonder why all states haven't chosen to institute these rate recovery laws as Georgia and South Carolina have done. These laws allow the utilities to obtain lower financing rates, reduce the cost of capital by reducing the effective interest rate over the life of the project and ultimately saving the collective ratepayers several hundred million dollars. Such a deal!

The lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the laws are actually frivolous attempts to prevent new nuclear generation capacity.

Dr. Clint Wolfe

Aiken, S.C.

(The writer is executive director for Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness.)