PRINTER'S NO. 1942
No. 221 Session of 2001
INTRODUCED BY GEORGE, BELARDI, BOYES, CAPPABIANCA, COY, DeLUCA,
FREEMAN, HALUSKA, JOSEPHS, MELIO, SATHER, SHANER, SOLOBAY,
SURRA, THOMAS, TRELLO, WALKO, WASHINGTON AND YEWCIC,
MAY 10, 2001
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON CONSUMER AFFAIRS, MAY 10, 2001
A RESOLUTION
1 Encouraging the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to reject
2 in its entirety GPU's petition for a rate cap exception.
3 WHEREAS, GPU, through its subsidiaries Penelec and Met-Ed,
4 serves over 1 million residential, commercial and industrial
5 customers in this Commonwealth, a service territory covering 44
6 counties and almost 50% of the geographic area of this
7 Commonwealth; and
8 WHEREAS, GPU has requested rate cap exceptions that could
9 cost customers up to $3 billion over ten years because GPU
10 claims that its increased costs to purchase power are due to
11 factors beyond its control; and
12 WHEREAS, The history of GPU's decisions in the past four
13 years, decisions taken without prior Pennsylvania Public Utility
14 Commission approval, clearly demonstrates that GPU's problems
15 were within its control, including voluntarily selling all of
16 its electricity generation plants and voluntarily abandoning the
17 ability to lock in fixed-price supply contracts from these
1 plants before their sale; and
2 WHEREAS, From the beginning of GPU's restructuring case in
3 the fall of 1997 until approximately three months before
4 deregulation was to occur in January 1999, GPU did not propose
5 or announce an effective plan to greatly reduce its customers'
6 electrical demand other than from voluntary shopping; and
7 WHEREAS, There were price spikes in wholesale electricity
8 markets in the summers of 1997 and 1998 so volatile that one
9 electric company needing to buy large amounts of electricity in
10 the wholesale market for only two days lost $100 million in that
11 48-hour period; and
12 WHEREAS, This $3 billion rate increase would devastate the
13 economies of northwest and central Pennsylvania, discourage new
14 manufacturing plants moving into the area from across the
15 nation, cost government more and strain the budgets of our
16 working families; therefore be it
17 RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives strongly
18 encourage the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission to reject
19 in its entirety GPU's petition for a rate cap exception; and be
20 it further
21 RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolution be transmitted to
22 the Governor, the Chairman and Secretary of the Pennsylvania
23 Public Utility Commission, each member of the Pennsylvania
24 Public Utility Commission and each member of Congress from
25 Pennsylvania.
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