Testimony against proposed Pepco rate hike

COMMUNITY HEARING, PUBLIC INPUT SOUGHT ON POTOMAC ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY’S RATE APPLICATION, FORMAL CASE NO. 1076, IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION OF THE POTOMAC ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY FOR AUTHORITY TO INCREASE EXISTING RETAIL RATES AND CHARGES FOR ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION SERVICE

D.C. Public Service Commission
Friday, November 20, 2009 at 10:00am
Testimony of David Schwartzman,
on behalf of the DC Statehood Green Party and the DC Metro Science for the People

Pepco’s request for a 14% increase in electricity rates should be rejected. A majority of our residents can ill afford such an increase especially in these times of economic depression. Such an increase will force many residents to choose between the potential shutoff of their electric supply, delay in rent or mortgage payment or cut in their food budget. The electric bill is effectively a regressive tax on an essential service since the same charge/kwh is applied regardless of income of the customer. Our residents have a regressive DC tax structure. Working class families with average incomes from $26 to 45 K pay10% of their income in DC taxes while DC millionaires, averaging $2.7 million pay an effective rate of only 6.4% of their income.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of PEPCO Holdings INC. received a total compensation of $10 million in 2008, up $5 million from 2006 (Annual Report, 2008). Terence Golden, a major shareholder and Board of Directors member of PEPCO, received $138 K in compensation. Golden is also the Chairman of the Federal City Council, the main architect of the IMF-style Structural Adjustment Program imposed on District residents starting with the Control Board regime and continuing under the Fenty administration.

We support the just demands made by the ANSWER Coalition and others testifying calling for:
1) Public hearings regarding Pepco’s proposed $51.7 million rate hike to be held on three consecutive Saturdays at the D.C. Public Service Commission headquarters to maximize input from the public;
2) An immediate moratorium on shutoffs of electric services;
3) A 50% rollback in rates.

Further, PEPCO has demonstrated atrocious disregard of the environmental rights of DC residents, indeed the environmental rights of all humans on this planet, by its continued burning of the worst contributor to global warming, coal.

“In 2008, the electricity that Pepco provided to DC residents came mainly (53%) from coal, and only 0.5% came from wind energy. A large part of the coal burned for Pepco electricity has come from mountaintop removalmining in Appalachia. In addition, the parent company Pepco Holdings, Inc. owns two coal- fired power plants and a number of other fossil fuel plants. Pepco Holdings renewable energy facilities represent less than 1% of the generating capacity of the facilities it owns. The company is even planning the construction of two new fossil fuel power plants.”
(http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/10/26/dc-rising-tidepepcoal-under-fire-for-sourcing-electricity-from-coal/)

We propose a radical change in provision of electricity and natural gas to our residents. Following the example of courageous defense of Cleveland Public Power by Mayor Kucinich in 1978, we urge the immediate convening of a community advisory board to produce a plan for the municipalization of PEPCO assets in the District of Columbia creating DC Public Power, dedicated to rapid solarization of our electricity supply with a focus on truly affordable community controlled photovoltaics, and a rate structure that is calibrated to ability to pay, i.e., the income of the household unit.

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