Hovensa Demands WAPA Pay In Advance for Fuel

It's so crazy that the WAPA situation has gotten to this point. Maybe the GOV will step up and pay the $25 million they owe, I hope so. The alternatives look bleak with years of acumulated mis-management.
If the rate gets higher more people will realize that making the investment in solar and wind cashes out and this will put more stain on WAPA to deal with less users and revenues.
It will be interesting to see what the Gov and the senators propose as a solution, finally their backs are against the wall..

The rate is almost to the point where I can run my generator and beat WAPA's rate.

I bet WAPA is sorry they converted all the boilers from coal to oil now!

Even if they still used coal when the outstanding balance got to $40 million of which $12 million was past due, don't you think the coal company would have cut WAPA off?

Jim

well i for one think it's about time hess did what they did,am i the only one to notice that NOTHING gets done down here until it collapses,it seems that our government just goes tra la la la lalling along until something bad happens and THEN something gets done about it,and the pampered pets we call our senate have once again done nothing except blow more hot air,on free speech this a.m. a couple of callers commented that when they go into government offices they see the ladies wearing sweaters and coats.

The last government office I was in (Health Dept.) was downright chilly. There's a lot of people who can't afford the investment in solar & those that do, I hope will research the companies carefully & make sure it's a company with a good reputation & history.

stephen larsen and his wife jan mitchell live off the grid and the man loves to talk,he'd probally be a good place to start,they have the mitchell design studio downtown on company street kinda by the old indies restaurant

Well, once again.....When is the congress going to step in and force the sale of WAPA.

I think it would be the Dept. of the Interior.

Prepare for Black outs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this is always going to happen when they don't have the money to pay hovensa then they start with the rolling balckouts until they have the money to pay.

All Oil companies have posted record profits this last quarter. So how about a tax on the oil refinery "per gallon "of refined oil that would go to WAPA since WAPA is a Govt owned entity. Wind fall profit tax is not unheard of. Since 50% of Hovensa is owned by a foriegn investor/owner. Any monies or oil that leave the US or its territories would be subject to the tax.

My reading has indicated that refineries are not making record profits and in fact are doing worse in the high price environment for oil that we are currently in. This could be incorrect and would love to be educated if this is the case. Either way, I don't think the solution is to steal from the largest job creator on STX forcing them to potentially leave the island entirely. I think the near-term solution is for the government to pay their bills like the rest of us. What they have done by not paying their bills amounts to a hidden tax. We all use electricty and have to pay more for it to make up for what the government is not paying. Basically its a tax without any legal backing, also known as theft. We are at the tipping point though, the situation is becoming one where the utility has no advantages over self-generation of power which means that they will begin to lose their customers, along with their monopoly on power. Once its gone it will never return as once people make the investments in the alternatives they will never go back to the current status quo of being robbed by govt. house through WAPA.

Sean

So where do you think they would get the money to pay the added tax? Take it out of their savings? Dig up some of the cans of money they have buried? NO they will just raise the price of fuel and you will pay it.
That type of thinking is what has gotten this country (US) in some of the bad shape it is in.

The money would come from the Wind Fall Profit! The price of oil is based in part by greed created in the futures/commodities market! That's not the people or the Govt. Most utilities are controlled by the price they charge customers. The same oil that's already in the system meaning "out of the ground refined "did not cost $140.00 a barrel for crude, but the increased price is posted the same day at the pump. How come when the price of oil goes down to $123.00 a barrel for crude it takes weeks and months to see a reduction at the pump. Markets are established by what the traffic will bear/supply/demand. So if your an oil company and you play with the price be prepared to pay to play. The US has never taxed the oil companies a Wind Fall Profit tax. Greed and reliance on foreign oil got us here.Oh I forgot the tax would not be on the refinery, but the oil companies that profit and leave the US and its territories with the refined product. That would not force Hovensa to close on STX and would not effect the price we pay at home. As far as alternative energy sources effecting the bottom line at Hovensa ( not in our lifetime) real world!

Lets see, $7 for a gallon of milk. I say we should put a bigger tax on milk!!! That will bring the price down! I love the socialist approach!!
Its been proven the world over. Please.

just stop drinking milk,we are the only mammal that continues to drink milk after being weaned,our bodies don't need it,it's just a right wing conspiracy to keep the dairy farmers in business,lol and the oil companies bring to mind the old robber barons of the late 1800's,what was it that old cornelius vanderbilt used to say "the public be damned" ?,but i digress, the problem is not one of hess's making as our senate would have you believe,it is the fault of mismanagement at wapa over the decades and just another example of insisting that "we don't need outsiders trying to "help" us" because then everyone would see how badly things are run"

Don't Bush and Cheney own shares in BIG Milk??

probally but then again they are businessmen plain and simple,doing what business men try to do best,max out profits and i think it's odd that russia invaded georgia the way they did,if they piss off the USA who's going to help them when china invades siberia to grab all the oil and natural gas reserves? Bush and cheney are perfect examples of big business run amok

Jay.
If memory serves me correctly, we did have a milk tax and some states still do ( State of NJ for example adds .10 cents on the real estate tax in the State to give school children free milk) That tax was enacted in 1945 never taken off the books since and the kids pay for milk today. The milk industry was subsidized by the feds for years. Farmers today are paid not to grow certain crops (Big Corp have taken over the farm industry).

wall street journal says crude is 113.61 a barrel as of 8:15 this morning

This morning on the news, I heard the Governor say the government will do whatever is necessary to solve the problem. I wonder if this includes paying their bill...

The rumor I'm hearing from my hovensa friends is hovensa wants to take over wapa. They claim they could run most of the island on the excess electric hovensa creates. But this is all rumor.

and betty i think it's a great idea

Works for me....Just get the government out of the power business. The more their incompetence is exposed, the better chance the folks will rise up and demand they unload WAPA. Elections are coming up, lets hope someone running has the guts to propose the sale of WAPA, even expose the corruption of the government appointing people to jobs as political favors at the authority.....Or is that asking to much.

Ronnie where are you?