D.C. Council members send letter in last-ditch effort to stop Pepco merger
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Version 0 of 1. Four D.C. Council members on Monday pressed the governmental body tasked with deciding on the Pepco-Exelon merger to ignore the urging of the city’s mayor, attorney general and environment director and vote against the controversial deal. Council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), David Grosso (I-At Large), Elissa Silverman (I-At Large) and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) sent a letter to the D.C. Public Service Commission, arguing that nuclear giant Exelon’s $6.4 billion takeover of local utility Pepco is just as bad for D.C. ratepayers as it was last summer. The three-member commission had unanimously rejected the merger in August, on the basis that it did not serve the public interest. But it agreed to give the deal a second look after D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) negotiated a revised settlement agreement with Exelon. Bowser said in October that the new deal puts “ratepayers first.” Chicago-based Exelon, which owns more nuclear power plants than any other utility company in the nation, has agreed to spend $3.5 million on D.C. solar-energy projects, and offered a one-time $50 credit to ratepayers. It also has promised a moratorium on rate increases through March 2019, said it would hire more than 100 union workers, and would not lay off members of the Pepco workforce for at least five years. Michael Czin, the mayor’s spokesman, said in a statement: “Through months of negotiations and a focus on affordability, reliability, sustainability [and] economic impact the District was able to increase Pepco and Exelon’s investment in the District by more than 500%. The Mayor believes that the District’s negotiated deal is in the best interest of residents and ratepayers.” But in their 11-page letter to the Public Service Commission, the dissenting council members argued that the revised settlement amounts simply to “short-term benefits that in the long-term have detrimental costs.” The new agreement is sprinkled with “one-time payments” and commitments to do things “that are already happening,” the lawmakers said. Just as it did over the summer, Pepco’s takeover by a nuclear-energy giant still runs contrary to the District’s goal of making its energy consumption sustainable, they argue. And the promises of jobs and flat rates are only temporary and misleading — “akin to signing a balloon mortgage, or having your rent permanently increase, but getting the first month at the old price.” That Bowser and other D.C. political leaders held closed-door negotiations with the companies and then reversed course on the merger has also stoked controversy. The merger’s opponents, including the letter’s signatories and some environmental and good governance groups, have questioned the influence of big money in swaying the support of the city’s politicians, a notion that Bowser and other supporters of the deal have denied. The Public Service Commission is likely to reach a final decision on the merger next year. In an ongoing public relations campaign that has featured newspaper and radio advertisements and a fierce lobbying effort, Exelon has sought to highlight how much “better” the new settlement is from the last. “But just because an offer is better,“ the council members said in their letter “that doesn’t make it good.” |