ElectriCities CEO folds his cards

Critics of ElectriCities, the umbrella organization that manages the two public power agencies in North Carolina, have a trophy. The criticism became too much for ElectriCities CEO Jesse Tilton, who resigned Friday. The critics might have Tilton's head, figuratively, but that doesn't necessarily a change in attitudes or finances at ElectriCities and its two power agencies.

Tilton, who made around $450,000 a year, had been the target of most of the criticism about high electric rates and wrong financing decisions. But he was one of a number of ElectriCities executives pulling down six-figure incomes. Now, if you eliminated all those big salaries, you would have only a negligible impact on electric rates paid by residents of 51 North Carolina cities and towns that share in electricity generated by power agencies and the additional power bought wholesale from Progress Energy and Duke Power. So Tilton's resignation isn't going to make anyone's electric bill go down.

If member cities and towns are developing a new attitude of stricter oversight and more skeptical attention toward power agency and ElectriCities decisions, things might actually change. Cities, including Wilson, are hearing it from their residents. The impact of high utility rates on economic development, personal finances and business growth is beginning to sink in. Activist residents are howling about high electric rates. These residents are also voters who might carry their frustration and anger into the voting booth.

Unfortunately, the N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency and its sister power agency have few means of significantly reducing power rates. NCEMPA is paying for debt incurred in the early 1980s to buy into then-Carolina Power & Light power plants. Servicing that debt plus paying for the universally rising costs of power puts NCEMPA in a bind. Defaulting on the debt is not an option. It would ruin the credit-worthiness of all 32 NCEMPA cities. Probably the best that can be done is to trim costs wherever possible and pay off that debt as quickly as possible. Background talk of possibly floating new bonds to buy into the construction of more generating plants should be squelched immediately. The one thing NCEMPA and ElectriCities don't need is more debt.

Tilton's resignation won't affect those options.