D.C.’s Public Service Commission Denies Latest Challenge to Exelon-Pepco Merger, Coalition to File Court Appeal
June 17, 2016
D.C.’s Public Service Commission Denies Latest Challenge to Exelon-Pepco Merger, Coalition to File Court Appeal
Statement of David J. Arkush, Managing Director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program and Lead Attorney for Public Citizen and DC SUN
Note: Today the D.C. Public Service Commission rejected requests that it reconsider its decision to permit Exelon to take over Pepco. Public Citizen and D.C. Solar United Neighborhoods (DC SUN) requested reconsideration jointly. In separate requests, Attorney General Karl A. Racine, People’s Counsel Sandra Mattavous-Frye and Grid 2.0 also sought reconsideration of the decision.
We are deeply disappointed that the commission failed to reverse the unlawful Exelon-Pepco takeover today. But the case doesn’t end here, and we will not stop fighting. Public Citizen and DC SUN fully intend to take the commission to court.
The takeover is a bad deal for D.C. consumers, plain and simple. It will lead to higher electricity rates with no guarantee of better service.
In addition, there is every reason to believe Exelon will stymie the District’s laudable efforts to shift to renewable energy and fight climate change. The world has just experienced the hottest January, February, March, April and May on record. The District’s climate is already famously unpleasant, and global warming only makes the region hotter, wetter and more mosquito- and disease-ridden. The District has every reason to reject an electric utility that will drag its feet rather than help win the fight against the greatest threat of our century.
Statement by Anya Schoolman, executive director of DC SUN:
“Today’s disappointing but unsurprising decision is another example of the Public Service Commission’s broken process. Its actions set a terrible precedent that the commission can bend its rules in favor of large corporations at the expense of the public interest. That is why it is so important this fight continues. District residents want and deserve better.”