The politics of power Deregulation and the dereliction of duty

Imagine if Hurricane Isabel really hit us hard! It didn’t, but given the damage and mess Isabel’s glance caused in our area, some serious questions need to be asked about general preparedness and where utilities are placing their priorities.

How many times have commentators and some politicians expressed alarm at how outdated our utilities actually are? These questions warrant deep analysis and creative thinking so that we will be better prepared the next time. We can only hope.

I’ve got some of my own questions. I’m hoping that consumers, elected officials, and other political creatures are confronted by them. Up to this point, the reactions have been about consumer outrage and inconvenience.

1. What if a real hurricane–a category 2 or 3–rolled on through the Chesapeake and we got a direct hit? Florida and North Carolina have borne the brunt. But if a spent hurricane that passed 200 miles to our west, knocked out our power for almost a week, and cost us bundles of money, damaged property, lives, etc., what would a direct hit do? What would it take to prepare for such a catastrophic event? Could PEPCO and neighboring utility companies handle it?

2. A bottom-line issue directly related to the flurry of droughts, record rainfall, snowfalls, and tornadoes has got to be global warming. Those who continue to question whether we need to do something with respect to global warming surely have to be grouped with those who question the link between lung cancer and cigarette smoking. We’ve got to get a grip on the need to take immediate steps to make sweeping reforms.

PEPCO’s dependence on what it perceives as a cheap, but heavily polluting coal generated power and its refusal to significantly back alternative energy, has to be called to question. In the last Maryland legislative session, PEPCO rolled out all their big guns, favors, and everything possible to stop the renewable energy portfolio bill — and in the end they succeeded. Rep. Carol Petzold (D-Dist. 19) and other enablers stopped the wind power bill from being passed.

Citizen pressure has to be applied on PEPCO to drop their opposition to renewable energy. We must end our heavy dependence on coal in this day and age.

3. PEPCO views itself as a 107-year-old venerable energy service provider; since deregulation they view themselves as "lean and green." In fact, they are viewed by experts as a third-rate service provider that has failed to put necessary funds into upkeep, repair, and service.

Despite a credible job done by their able linemen, they are rated as understaffed and under equipped to meet emergency situations. The grid is woefully old, above ground, customer service is lousy and there are not enough workers to handle demand. They are wholly dependent on out-of-state volunteer professional crews whenever an emergency arises.

Many have commented–regarding the recent August outages, as well as the ice storm in 1999 that knocked out power to 230,000 homes and businesses–that they’ve been in third-world countries where the power is more reliable! (In my neighborhood we have lost our power 10 times in the past year!)

A widely held view is that since deregulation, PEPCO has been more interested in monetary returns to their investors than in good service to their customers.

And what about the dry ice fiasco. PEPCO was responsible for getting 350,000 pounds of dry ice out to its customers. What I witnessed, however, on Friday, September 19, was total incompetence guided by the Montgomery County police, the Sheriff’s office and the Boy Scouts!

I watched as councilmember Tom Perez shook his head in dismay at PEPCO’s ugly failure in public relations at the Wheaton Westfield Shopping Center. Thousands of us foolishly stood in a long, winding line for over 3 hours in the rain while PEPCO spokespeople assured us that (police escorted) tractor trailers would be arriving soon, loaded with enough dry ice to serve us all.

So we waited. And waited. They counted the number of people in line and knew how many bags of ice were arriving. But rather than tell us there would be a cut-off point, they simply made us all wait until the ice ran out. I don’t believe a fourth of the folks waiting on the lines were served.

"They did a horrible job, and left thousands angrier and empty handed, and probably did more harm than good in the end," Perez said informally to me after the fiasco.

As an angry cry of dismay came from the thousands of people made needlessly to wait, a line of 50 police quickly formed around the empty ice containers.

Personally, I wondered why at least 20 county police cars were tied up in this waste of time and energy to protect empty containers! The incompetence shown by PEPCO, and time spent by public employees, only lowered opinions of PEPCO’s ability to provide good service to the public.

4. The deregulation of PEPCO and subsequent selling off of their power-generating capacity has been viewed as a sellout of Maryland consumers. We ought to review the history of the sellout and look at who its supporters were. (Senate President Mike Miller as well as the Maryland Democratic Party and County Executive Douglas Duncan are among the recipients of large amounts of influence-peddling PEPCO PAC money). We question their leadership because we were sold out as they did PEPCO’s bidding.

Mike Tidwell, Director of the Chesapeake Action Network and a leader of the Maryland Clean Energy movement, commented, "All observers agree, from those in the highest leadership positions to the smallest consumer, that the 1999 Maryland Deregulation Bill has not lowered electricity costs [as promised by PEPCO], and has not increased competition, and has not improved customer service. PEPCO, more than any other Maryland utility, clearly characterizes the complete failure of deregulation."

Perhaps we need to start examining some radical solutions.

First of all, we as a nation need to make the decision that certain services are "entitlements" (such as education, health care, and housing). We can learn from the continuing efforts to improve public education, we should develop strategies and policies that will ensure that every home has access to clean energy at affordable costs.

Second, however these services are provided, they must function on a non-profit, consumer-first basis. Probably the root of many of our problems is the profit-driven system governing power providers. This greedy attitude shifts the motivation of those in charge away from strategies such as long-term planning for equipment replacement and maintaining a reasonably sized work force to pleasing stockholders with impressive profit numbers and stock values.

A regional power authority, with an emphasis on renewable energy usage, headed by real public servants, could be established. Or a state-managed public utility company could be pulled together, with a re-organized BGE and PEPCO as their core. As much as I’m distrustful of state bureaucracies, their strength is public oversight and accountability. And financing should be found to support research into less vulnerable and affordable delivery systems, since it seems PEPCO won’t cut into its profits to seriously invest in such a system..

Since financing an underground system seems to be one solution–and since the President hightailed it out of town as soon as the storm hit and Metro and Congress had to close down –perhaps Bush should postpone his tax cut for the rich next year and use $10 billion out of the $87 billion cuts to help finance the system.

At any rate (no pun intended!), it’s time to let our political representatives know that PEPCO and its board are not deserving of the public’s trust. Before the next strong hurricane, ice storm, or tropical downpour hits, we’ve got to know there are competent, able, and trustworthy people in charge whose focus is on public service.

Right now, a class action suit charging negligence and incompetence would be in order. Thus far, only two county councilmembers have expressed any interest in the matter. County Executive Doug Duncan seems to be blowing off constitutent steam rather than offering substantive recommendations for change. Politicians need to know of their constituents’ concerns including creative changes in the present system, and be willing to act on them. Minimally, a large county-wide public hearing should be scheduled to address our public complaints and questions.

As Duchy Trachtenberg, a critical observer of Montgomery County’s political machinations reacted, "at the turn of the century, Tom Johnson, Mayor of Cleveland, remarked, ‘I believe in the municipal ownership of waterworks, of parks, of schools…because if you do not own them, they will in time own you…

"As mayor, Johnson fought to create in Cleveland a successful public power system that residents today overwhelmingly prefer to the available competing private utility. Considering the power struggles of these past few weeks, it is abundantly clear that the metropolitan Washington area would benefit enormously from publicly-owned utilities. Under such a public system maintaining utility systems, rather than influencing elections or increasing corporate revenue, would become the public priority."