Testimony delivered by jim schulman, aia
January 12, 2015
Honorable Commissioners and Staff,
My name is Jim Schulman and I live in Ward 6 of Washington, DC. I am the founder of the Community Forklift Used Building Materials store just across the DC line in Prince George’s County. In the past I have been active with the DC Consumer Utility Board, but I speak tonight on behalf of the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Council which represents small and green businesses in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. The CSBC speaks for a multitude of small and green businesses throughout Pepco’s service territory that are nervous about losing their local utility.
The CSBC is greatly concerned with the potential move of the management of our region’s long-standing electrical utility outside of the Mid-Atlantic. This is not just a matter of a change of address. It represents a potential shift of decision-making power, employment, and investment to people and new shareholders that have no direct relationship with the Mid-Atlantic or its people. This should be of the utmost concern to the PSC.
The consumer benefits of the merger, as advertised, are embarrassingly slight, in the form of the proposed small ($14 million) Customer Investment Fund and a temporary freeze on rates, especially when compared to the multi-billion dollar payout expected to investors. Furthermore, it has not been demonstrated that utility rates, reliability of service, or environmental sustainability for small business rate-payers would be better in the long run with Exelon than remaining in the hands of the locally-owned utility. Evidence actually indicates that Exelon, despite its large size, has a riskier financial profile than Pepco, in part due to its major investments in potentially stranded nuclear power generation assets.
The CSBC is also concerned that the acquisition of Pepco will lead to a hyper-concentration of market power in the PJM power pool, as representatives of the PJM have expressed. It would be against the interests of Washington Metro area business electricity customers for the mega-regional electricity market to be dominated by one large corporation.
Finally, I would like to quote a press release from the Office of the DC People’s Counsel: “While Exelon has supported clean air laws and regulations, and energy efficiency in the past, these notable efforts are substantially outweighed by the fact that Exelon is a vocal opponent of policies fostering renewable energy generation and distributed generation.”
The CSBC therefore feels that the proposed merge is overwhelmingly not in the public interest, and should be flatly rejected by the DC Public Service Commission.
We thank you for this opportunity to share our views!
My name is Jim Schulman and I live in Ward 6 of Washington, DC. I am the founder of the Community Forklift Used Building Materials store just across the DC line in Prince George’s County. In the past I have been active with the DC Consumer Utility Board, but I speak tonight on behalf of the Chesapeake Sustainable Business Council which represents small and green businesses in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. The CSBC speaks for a multitude of small and green businesses throughout Pepco’s service territory that are nervous about losing their local utility.
The CSBC is greatly concerned with the potential move of the management of our region’s long-standing electrical utility outside of the Mid-Atlantic. This is not just a matter of a change of address. It represents a potential shift of decision-making power, employment, and investment to people and new shareholders that have no direct relationship with the Mid-Atlantic or its people. This should be of the utmost concern to the PSC.
The consumer benefits of the merger, as advertised, are embarrassingly slight, in the form of the proposed small ($14 million) Customer Investment Fund and a temporary freeze on rates, especially when compared to the multi-billion dollar payout expected to investors. Furthermore, it has not been demonstrated that utility rates, reliability of service, or environmental sustainability for small business rate-payers would be better in the long run with Exelon than remaining in the hands of the locally-owned utility. Evidence actually indicates that Exelon, despite its large size, has a riskier financial profile than Pepco, in part due to its major investments in potentially stranded nuclear power generation assets.
The CSBC is also concerned that the acquisition of Pepco will lead to a hyper-concentration of market power in the PJM power pool, as representatives of the PJM have expressed. It would be against the interests of Washington Metro area business electricity customers for the mega-regional electricity market to be dominated by one large corporation.
Finally, I would like to quote a press release from the Office of the DC People’s Counsel: “While Exelon has supported clean air laws and regulations, and energy efficiency in the past, these notable efforts are substantially outweighed by the fact that Exelon is a vocal opponent of policies fostering renewable energy generation and distributed generation.”
The CSBC therefore feels that the proposed merge is overwhelmingly not in the public interest, and should be flatly rejected by the DC Public Service Commission.
We thank you for this opportunity to share our views!
