Elected leaders from across northwest Ohio
have joined forces to stop a scheme by
FirstEnergy to steal back savings customers have
received from electric competition.
Lucas County Commissioner Harry Barlos,
Toledo Mayor Jack Ford, and Toledo City Council
member Pete Gerken are among the local leaders
accusing FirstEnergy of trying to manipulate
electric price structures in its favor.
FirstEnergy has filed an application with the
Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to change
those price structures in a way that could:
- drive FirstEnergy's competitors out of the
local market,
- leave consumers without electric choice,
- allow FirstEnergy to set its own electric
rates beginning in 2007.
"FirstEnergy has already scammed the PUCO and
consumers out of $8.8 billion in transition
costs," said Lucas County Commissioner Harry
Barlos. "With rules of the game already stacked
in their favor, FirstEnergy now wants to steal
$5 million more from consumers by asking the
PUCO to change those rules even more. First
Energy's efforts are anti-customer,
anti-competitive and must be stopped."
"If the PUCO allows FirstEnergy to adjust its
price structure as proposed, the adjustments not
only cause our residents to lose $20-30 per year
in savings, but they could possibly lose money,"
said Toledo Mayor Jack Ford. "This request by
FirstEnergy harms consumers, harms competition,
and is absolutely unacceptable."
"FirstEnergy, in an effort to drive out
competitors, appears willing to take a small
loss now in order to restore its status as a
sole provider to electricity in the near
future," said Toledo City Councilman Pete
Gerken. "This is an insult to all of the NOAC
communities, as we have worked hard for the past
3-1/2 years to give our citizens a choice."
According to the latest PUCO Ohio Utility
Rate Survey, Toledo-area customers continue to
pay the highest electric rates of any major
metropolitan area in the state. That statistic
applies to every category of electric customer:
residential, commercial and industrial. The
survey shows Toledo-area customers also pay the
highest overall utility bill in the state
(includes electric, natural gas and
telephone).
NOAC communities include Maumee, Northwood,
Oregon, Perrysburg, Sylvania, Toledo, Holland
and the unincorporated area of Lucas County
(represented by the Board of Lucas County
Commissioners). Voters gave the coalition
approval to negotiate cheaper electric rates in
November 2000. The ability for communities to
band together in one large electric buying pool,
or aggregation group, was part of a large-scale
electric deregulation bill passes two years ago
by the Ohio General Assembly.
The aim of electric aggregation, as the term
is known, gives Lucas County households similar
bargaining power that large industrial electric
customers enjoy when contract rates are
negotiated on their behalf with FirstEnergy or
an alternative electric supplier. NOAC
negotiated cheaper electric rates with WPS
Energy Services of Green Bay, Wisconsin last
year. Residential customers have saved $20-30
per year as a result. Those cheaper rates
translate into total annual savings of more than
$5 million. NOAC secured the best savings of any
coalition in Ohio.
"NOAC has invested a lot of time, effort and
money to give electric customers the small price
break that's allowed under Ohio's electric
deregulation laws," said Barlos. "We will lead
the charge to protect consumers from
FirstEnergy's scheme to destroy competition now,
so there won't be any challenges left in 2007
when electric deregulation takes full
effect."
Electric customers can voice their
displeasure by calling the PUCO Public Interest
Center at 1-800-686-7826, or by filing an online
complaint at http://www.puco.ohio.gov/
to state their opposition to FirstEnergy's
application for approval of tariff adjustments.
