Like most Pennsylvanians today, you’re probably struggling to fill up your gas tank and your grocery cart at the same time. You know we are having an energy crisis when gas is $4 a gallon and milk and bread cost twice what they used to. But the real energy crisis for Pennsylvanians is not even here yet — it’s about 18 months away. That’s when, beginning in 2010, rate caps will come off for Pennsylvania’s five largest energy companies. Five power companies serve 85 percent of all of the electricity customers in our commonwealth. Once the caps are lifted, electric rates will immediately increase between 50 percent and 60 percent for every residential customer, every small business owner and every large manufacturing plant across our state. Family budgets will be decimated. Small business owners will not be able to absorb 50 percent higher costs and they certainly won’t be able to pass all of it along to their customers. So they will go out of business. School districts will have to raise property taxes to pay their higher electric bills. Hospitals will be forced to raise the price of health care. And every local borough and municipality will be forced to raise taxes to keep streetlights on and provide services to the residents they serve. Instead of delivering real competition, more customer choice and lower electric prices, electric deregulation in 2010 guarantees just two things: record rate increases and record company profits. That’s because there is no competitive market in Pennsylvania for electric customers to shop around. Pennsylvania is an electricity exporting state. We produce more electricity than we consume. These huge rate increases have nothing to do with anything except runaway profiteering and pure greed. Sen. Lisa M. Boscola Harrisburg The writer represents the state’s 18th District — Lehigh, Monroe and Northampton counties.

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