Activists say electric bills will soon become political issue

January 05, 2010, 12:01PM

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DANIEL VICTOR, The Patriot-NewsActivist Gene Stilp holds a fake indictment list of Pennsylvania lawmakers who he says failed to protect Pennsylvania electricity customers from rising electricity costs.

When PPL customers see their January bills, the reality of rate cap removal will hit home for the midstate and the anger could start a political firestorm, activists argued in the Capitol in Harrisburg today.

Activist Gene Stilp said he believes the response should rival the anger the public felt after pay raises in 2005 and the current table games debate. He said the public will then demand answers from their legislators.

“People are going to say: ‘What have you done?’ ” Stilp said. “They’ll say, ‘We’ve done nothing,’ and people will remember that.”

Electricity bills are rising 29.7 percent for PPL customers as rate caps expired on Jan. 1. The rate caps were a condition of the deregulation of the electricity industry in 1996.

Activist Herb Braden challenged Public Utilities Chairman James H. Cawley to debate the merits of deregulation — but revealed the challenge to reporters before informing Cawley himself.

In a statement, Cawley declined the offer.

“We appreciate the interest in the expiration of rate caps,” he said. “It would be unproductive to debate the pros and cons of legislative policy that was decided a decade ago. Rather, the PUC is focused on implementing the policy in a way that provides consumers with as many options as possible while protecting the reliability of the system.”

The average PPL customer can limit the increase by more than $100 in 2010 by switching to an alternative energy supplier. A shopping list is available at the Office of the Consumer Advocate Web site.