Don’t Turn Back the Clock on Pennsylvania’s Electric Choice
By John Hanger
In the mid-1990s, Pennsylvania was plagued with inefficient power generation, soaring prices, and rolling blackouts. Electric rates were 15% higher than the national average, and Philadelphia and Pittsburgh residential electricity prices were among the 10 highest in the country. The Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act changed all of that — and the results have been nothing short of remarkable.
But a little-known settlement agreement that is now before the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) would quietly but devastatingly end retail electricity choice for more than 2 million First Energy customers, throwing away nearly three decades of hard-won progress. It should be rejected.
By eliminating retail electricity choice for customers in the Met-Ed, Penn Power, Penelec, and West Penn Power service territories, this decision would tell those customers — families, small businesses, manufacturers, nonprofits — that the competitive market we built together is no longer available to them. That is not a minor regulatory adjustment. That is a fundamental reversal of Pennsylvania energy policy, and it deserves to be treated as exactly that.
Read the entire article HERE: Op-Ed: Don’t turn back the clock on Pennsylvania’s electric choice | Pennsylvania | thecentersquare.com
