Rep. George

For only the second time since he’s been Governor, Gov. Rendell is scheduled appear before a legislative committee, this time to talk about issues surrounding the expiration of electric rate caps in most of the state in 2010.

The Governor will appear before the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee on September 9 in Philadelphia. The Majority Chair of the Committee is Rep. Camille George (D-Clearfield) and the Minority Chair is Rep. Scott Hutchinson (R-Venango).

"PECO, Pennsylvania's largest utility, anticipates a 20 percent jump in electric-generation charges when its rate cap ends on January 1, 2011," Rep. George said. "PECO's 1.6 million customers already are struggling with energy costs, especially the almost 30,000 PECO customers who had electric service terminated in the first eight months of 2008."

In addition to Gov. Rendell, the other witnesses expected to testify include:

· Andrew Ott, senior vice president of markets, PJM Interconnections, a power wholesaler;

· Mark Crisson, CEO, American Public Power Association, representing more than 2,000 community-owned electric utilities;

· Liz Robinson, executive director of the non-profit Energy Coordinating Agency; and

· Curtis Jones Jr., Philadelphia City Council member.

"The Committee hearing will enable ratepayers to learn and participate in decisions that will affect their pocketbooks, lifestyles and economic futures," said Rep. George. "The political process created the scenario where household incomes have faltered as utility profits have soared, and those political decisions can be changed."

Rep. George said testimony from PJM Interconnections, which operates the world's largest wholesale electricity market from its headquarters near Valley Forge, should be captivating.

"On one hand you have a state Public Utility commissioner saying we must 'trust the marketplace' and lawmakers defending utility generation charges to ratepayers five times what it cost to produce power," Rep. George said. "On the other hand, you have the PUC filing a federal complaint over unjust and unreasonable prices, and state officials and even utilities describing the wholesale power market as broken, consumer unfriendly and fatally flawed.

"Somebody's playing games with the public trust," he said, noting that residential customers of five leading utilities are projected to pay at least $1.55 billion more annually once the utility rate caps expire, and average electric costs are higher in Philadelphia than in the nation as a whole.

Rep. George has introduced Special Session House Bill 54, which would extend electric-generation rate caps for at least two more years. Already approved by the House, is his House Bill 2200, which would save consumers $1.3 billion by 2012 through conservation and lower electric costs during peak usage periods when power is most expensive.

Pennsylvania utilities, representing more than 80 percent of the state's electric customers, their scheduled rate-cap expirations, and their projected rate increases are: PPL, December 31, 2009, 37 percent; Allegheny Energy, December 31, 2010, 63 percent; FirstEnergy/Penelec, December 31, 2010, 50 percent; FirstEnergy/Met-Ed, December 31, 2010, 54 percent; PECO, December 31, 2010, 20 percent.

This is the fifth hearing the Committee has held on the electric rate cap issue.

NewsClip: Penn State Study On Impact of Electric Rate Cap Expiration

PSU Researchers Gauge Pain Of Coming Electric Rate Hikes

9/5/2008