[WardFive] RECALLING: Re: Pls See Attached_Press Release onPress Conference re Pepco

Yesterday, I was asked to send out the below EM regarding a Press Release by community activist Rob Robinson on Pepco response and the upcoming hearing on Pepco's response to the 6/29/12 storm.

 

I was informed today that the Press Release had not been finalized and should not have been circulated, and the Press Conference will not be held tomorrow.  I am recalling this EM.  Apologies for any inconvenience.  Thank you.

 

Albrette "Gigi" Ransom

From: Gigi Ransom <gigifor5c12@yahoo.com>
To: Ward5 <ward5@yahoogroups.com>; wardfive Google <wardfive@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Monday, July 9, 2012 6:43 PM
Subject: Fw: Pls See Attached

I've been asked to circulate this press release on the Ward 5 listservs.

 

 
Albrette "Gigi" Ransom
________________________________________
From: Robert Robinson [robrobin@me.com]
Sent: Monday, July 09, 2012 3:16 PM
Subject: Pls See Attached

 

Need your support for this effort.

"Fed Up With Power Outages? . . . Here's the Game Changer!"

DC's Rate Payers Urged to Turn Off Payments to Pepco and

Petition DC Council to Explore a Municipal Utility

 

Contact: Robert Robinson

(202.387.5956)

robrobin@me.com

 

On Wednesday, July 11 at 3:00 p.m. at Holy Christian Missionary Baptist Church, 5110 Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE, in Ward 7, the Coalition for Affordable, Reliable Energy in DC ("CARE About DC") will ask DC rate payers fed up with more frequent power outages, lasting days at a time and affecting hundreds of thousands to petition the DC Council to hold the utility accountable.

 

"Rate payers have no recourse with Pepco" insists Anya Schoolman, who has organized solar cooperatives in all of DC's eight wards. "No matter how unreliable the grid, no matter how user-unfriendly customer service is, no matter how much outages cost DC in health, safety, lost business and unreimbursed costs, the DC Public Service Commission (the "PSC") and the DC Council (the "Council") won't hold Pepco accountable."

 

"So, " continued Herbert Harris, Chair of the DC Consumer Utility Board, "we're petitioning the DC Council saying, 'We will withhold monthly electric payments to Pepco until you direct the PSC to financially constrain Pepco's top executives until grid reliability has been reversed and develop options for the Council to explore the creation of a municipal utility."

 

"The reliability of DC's grid has ranked in the last quartile among municipalities for years" said Jacqueline Arguelles Chair of the DC Commission on Aging, "We remember it wasn't always that way. But it is now and that means Pepco executives -- even if they were born and still live in DC -- don't care if residents of the nation's capital have to put up with a third world electric grid."

 

 President Larry Greenhill, Jr. of the DC Electrical Association asked, "What is Pepco's plan for a 21st Century Smart Grid, besides no more meter readers? What are its plans to replace fossil fuels with renewables; to use smart meters for demand side management; for dynamic load management? Why isn't Pepco investing rate payer dollars in the technologies, jobs and grid to power our future?"

 

The June 29 "Derecho" storm that left hundreds of thousands of DC residents without power for up to a week, showed Pepco less prepared, slower to respond, taking longer to get the power back than its counterparts in Virginia and Maryland.

 

To circulate a copy of the CARE About DC petition, please contact Robert Robinson at robrobin@me.com or go to (insert URL's).