Public Power To The People?
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-08-16/public-power-people
Consumer dissatisfaction with power companies is running high in the Washington region this summer after storms knocked out electricity for hundreds of thousands in late June. One local activist says the only way to to make our grids more reliable is to replace private companies like Pepco with publicly-owned utilities. We get a crash course in public power and whether it would be feasible in our region.
Guests
Eric Hensal
Activist; Founder and Creator, "Public Power for Montgomery County" (mocopublicpower.org); President Murray Hill
Ursula Schryver
Vice President, Education and Customer Programs, American Public Power Association
Paul Breakman
Partner, Duncan & Allen
John Murawski
Staff Writer, The News & Observer (N.C.)
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
Hi Kojo,
While the idea of a public power company isn't a bad idea, but the reality is PEPCO would fight to keep it's current contract which would probably drag on for years and be a lot worse for consumers. Instead, I think what we need to do is hold PEPCO to a service agreement that imposes fines for any power outage over 2 hours. Any power outage over 2 hours gets a $25 rebate to the customer, over 4 hours $50 and so on. I think hitting them where it hurts will get the job done.
Hi, Kojo,
The above idea sounds good if possible. Also, PEPCO should not be allowed to spend so much money on TV and radio announcements telling us public that they are "improving" by doing things they should have done all along, as part of their contract to provide efficient power to us. I cannot believe they have the gall to actually spend so much money as they have on commercials as they have to tout their 'good stuff', and then turn around and raise rates on us 'public' to basically get their money back for these commercials as well as the fines they have paid. They should not do commercials... just do good work and be efficient, which they aren't.