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still more.
We are in a recession. Usage of electricity is down, not up, and down substantially because of higher rates, because of the economic slowdown and because consumers are practicing conservation. It may be years before we know which way the economy is going, and what our future needs will be, yet instead of postponing a decision to determine future needs more accurately, which would have been both prudent and wise, this commission has seen fit to act now to give Vepco and Potomac Edison everything they asked for—in spite of the totally different picture in electric usage.
EVEN Charles B. Finch, president of the Allegheny Power System, Inc., parent company of Potomac Edison, said in New York on May 12 that “we must turn our methods of planning upside down” and fit construction plans to available funds when necessary. But the SCC wasn’t listening; it has now conveniently made it unnecessary for PE and Vepco to turn anything upside down to fit their pocketbooks. Thanks to the SCC, here it comes again, more high-tension, powerlines to scar the landscape and endanger our health, and even higher electric rates to pay for this folly.
When will the people do something about this kind of ripoff, this local Watergate scandal? When will we learn, too, not to support candidates for the governorship who, when elected, first hire Vepco’s director of public relations—as Mills Godwin did—and then defend and support Vepco’s requests for higher and higher rates, until due to public outcry he is finally induced to name a commission of inquiry, which of course can do nothing?
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