Doug Gibson's blog

Kay Hagan may be talking about a public option as she tours the state this week, but her office says she's still considering various plans and has not yet even endorsed any form of public option — let alone a robust one.

That's interesting, because Talking Points Memo is reporting that a draft of a public option has been leaked from the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions committee - one of the committees Hagan sits on, and the committee most likely to introduce a public option in the Senate. Here's TPM's take on the draft:

This happened about a year ago. But with Cliffside in the news, I think this deserves some attention. Last May, around the time that the Progress Energy plant was a hot topic in Asheville, Duke Energy floated a fascinating proposal to the NC Utilities Commission. In it, they suggested that they would promote energy efficiency as a "fifth fuel" by sponsoring education programs and providing subsidies for the purchase of more energy-efficient appliances and devices.

So far, so good. Where it gets weird is in the reward Duke sought for being virtuous: a new fee (starting at $15 per customer per year) that would compensate the utility for the electricity it didn't sell because of decreased demand. That fee was based not only on program costs or unsold wattage, but also on the cost of the power plants the utility would have had to build if customers didn't conserve.