At a press conference attended by a bipartisan group of state
legislators, Citizens for Pennsylvania’s
Future (PennFuture) today called on the members of the Pennsylvania
Legislature to empower Pennsylvania’s families
and business to gain control of their energy use and costs prior to the
removal of electricity rate caps by passing a robust Energy Savings Bill
before the Senate ends its voting session on Wednesday.
“HB 2200 is vital to the economic well-being
of families and businesses,” said Jan Jarrett,
president and CEO of PennFuture. “Families and
businesses are seeing investments, pensions and savings disappear as our
economy worsens, and are desperate to find ways to cut their budgets.
Passing robust Energy Savings legislation this week would empower all
Pennsylvanians to get a handle on their electricity bills in advance of
the removal of rate caps statewide.
“Families and businesses are stretched to the
breaking point with higher energy costs in all sectors, and the general
slowdown of the economy,” continued Jarrett. “Applying
vibrant energy conservation measures is the fastest and cheapest way any
family or business can save money. And cutting overall electricity usage
will also mean lower bills now and in the future, since we will both cut
peak demand and reduce the need to build more power plants and
transmission lines. But this must happen now or the conservation
programs that people need will not be in place before the expiration of
electricity rate caps.
“There are two key provisions that should be
in this economic rescue plan,” continued
Jarrett. “Any energy savings program must be
independently run, and not be the responsibility of the utilities. We
cannot put the utilities in the untenable position of being responsible
for developing programs to cut customers’
bills and, with it, the utilities’ own bottom
line. The second provision should be to provide smart meters to all
customers, empowering our families and businesses with the knowledge of
when energy is cheaper and thus lower their bills. Smart meters are
absolutely essential to lowering our electricity bills, especially when
electricity costs are the highest — by
cutting our use during peak times by 1 percent, we will achieve a 10
percent drop in the price of electricity for all.
“A robust Energy Savings bill will also
create jobs – great green jobs –
that will help build our economy,” continued
Jarrett. “After all, we need both savings and
growth. Passage of HB 2200 this week will mean real relief for all of
Pennsylvania’s families and businesses. We
look forward to the leadership of Senator Pileggi, Representative McCall
and Governor Rendell on this important bill and hope the General
Assembly will take action before it breaks for the elections.”
PennFuture is a statewide public interest membership organization,
founded in 1998. Working from the premise that “Every
environmental victory grows the economy,”
PennFuture has successfully advocated for landmark environmental
legislation, including passage of the largest ever environmental funding
bond, passage of the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards Act,
adoption of the Clean Vehicles Program and adoption of a regulation that
protects Pennsylvania’s babies by restricting
mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants. PennFuture has staff
throughout the state, in Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, West
Chester and Scranton. The Philadelphia Inquirer called PennFuture
the “state’s
leading environmental advocacy organization.”
PennFuture
Jeanne K. Clark, 412-258-6683
