'Abandon the hasty schedule' January 2004 Alan Schriber, Chairman Ronda Fergus, Commissioner Judy Jones, Commissioner Donald Mason, Commissioner Clarence Rogers, Commissioner Public Utilities Commission 180 E. Broad Street Columbus, OH 43215-3793 Dear Chairman Schriber and Commissioners Fergus, Jones, Mason and Rogers: As Ohio General Assembly members with constituents who are FirstEnergy customers, we strongly urge you to halt the expedited schedule for FirstEnergy’s pending rate stabilization case (03-2144-EL-ATA) and conduct the same full nine-month review any other case would get. The rushed schedule does not allow sufficient time for thorough investigation and analysis of the complex issues and billions of dollars on the line in this case. Routine rate cases that change monthly bills by only a few dollars are subject to a much more rigorous review. It is also troubling that the existing schedule would have case work completed before a new Consumers’ Counsel is appointed to represent residential customers. This is an extremely important economic issue for Ohio. There are many difficult and challenging issues to explore. And there is plenty of time to do the job right. We urge you to abandon the hasty schedule so that this case gets the careful scrutiny it should. Name:_________________________________________________________________ House/Senate District:__________________________