Dear Exelon, Go Home - Residents rebuff Utility ahead of official Merger decision
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Ahead of the Public Service Commission's decision, DC residents sent a letter directly to Exelon's CEO rebuffing the giant utility for heavy-handed politicking and core conflicts of interest.
Mr. Crane has not yet written back to the group. 
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To: Christopher Crane, CEO of Exelon
From: Concerned Residents of the District of Columbia February 25, 2016 Dear Mr. Crane, We understand why you want to buy Pepco. It must feel scary to be a giant utility when so much is changing in the world of electricity. Change is often scary, especially for those so deeply invested in the status quo. It's OK to feel self-conscious about being the biggest owner of nuclear power plants in the country now that nuclear power is looking more expensive and less reliable than ever before. We see that you have some serious financial problems ahead of you, and we sincerely wish you good luck - just not in DC. We want to keep our energy bills low. We want to transition to clean, efficient, and locally owned power. And - please don't laugh at our optimism here - we want our governmental systems to work for the people of DC. From what we’ve seen of Exelon so far, our plans just don’t fit with yours. The thing is, the merger was already rejected. Our Public Service Commissioners looked hard at your proposal and ruled that Exelon buying Pepco is simply a bad deal for DC. We’ve heard the promises you made in your ‘new deal’ with Mayor Bowser, but nothing in it addresses the fundamental reasons our Commissioners rejected your first offer. You want to sell your power at the highest price, while Pepco is supposed to buy the best power at the lowest price. It just doesn’t add up — and while your executives and shareholders may not mind, we do. We've seen your full-page ads in the Post, your Facebook ads, the endless mailers, and the recent promotional video from Anthony Williams. (They're hard to miss!) The fact that you pumped so much money into getting a different decision from the Commission feels kind of like you think you can skip over what’s good for DC and simply buy the decision you want. The Comissioners will announce their decision tomorrow, and we hope our public officials will again stand up for DC in rejecting your offer. You see, when you helped Pepco give $25 million to support the Mayor’s pet soccer stadium project; when you hired the chairman of the Mayor’s discredited PAC as a lobbyist and then fudged his lobbying disclosures; when you paid people to sign petitions; when you ran hundreds of hours of ads that conveniently ignored the millions you’re spending to undermine energy efficiency and renewable energy across the country; and when the majority of DC’s neighborhoods are against the merger — well, we just get the sense that you won’t be a very good neighbor. We empathize, but we really don’t want our electric bills going to bail you out of your bad business decisions. Sorry to be so direct, but we just don’t want you in DC. If you’re truly committed to affordable, clean, and resilient power systems, please focus on your existing customers in Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. They’re really dissatisfied with your service right now, and they could use the attention. We hope it won’t take long to pack your bags after a rejection tomorrow. But whatever the Commission’s decision, know that DC wants clean, affordable electricity – and we will fight to have it. Sincerely, Concerned Residents of the District of Columbia |
