August
25, 1998 412/421-6072
Pittsburgh, October 5 -- Citizen
Power, the Western Pennsylvania consumer and environmental watchdog group,
today called on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to “pull the
plug” on the comatose merger between Duquesne Light and Allegheny Energy, given
Duquesne Light’s refusal to complete the merger. This action comes as Duquesne Light yesterday formally rejected
the PUC’s July 23rd order permitting the merger to proceed.
David Hughes, Executive Director of Citizen Power
said, “It’s time for the PUC to stop wasting the public’s money and everyone’s
time on this broken merger attempt.
This proceeding has gone on for over a year, and now the Companies are
further apart than ever. The merger was
never a good idea for Western Pennsylvania – now even Duquesne Light admits it.
“The marriage of Duquesne Light and
Allegheny Power simply cannot be saved, no matter how eager Allegheny is to
consummate it,” continued Hughes. “And
it’s not up to the PUC to try to hold a shotgun on Duquesne Light to force them
to the altar. Let the Companies
themselves work it out or not, on their own terms, by their self-imposed
October 5th deadline.”
In another action, Citizen Power,
along with the Pennsylvania Public Interest Research Group (PennPIRG),
yesterday filed an appeal of the PUC’s July 23rd merger order to
Commonwealth Court. The appeal claims
that the PUC order violated the public’s right to due process, the law
establishing electricity restructuring in Pennsylvania, and the facts of the
case.
“From the beginning, Citizen Power said
the merger would prevent competition,” continued Hughes. “The year-long investigation by the PUC
clearly proved that we were right: the
merger would cripple competition and hurt consumers. Yet the PUC, seemingly intent on doing the bidding of Allegheny
Energy, ignored these facts and let the merger proceed. They have repeatedly failed to respond to
our objections and requests, so we had no choice but to go to Court to stop
them.
“It’s time – past time, really – for
the PUC to let the merger die. Otherwise, the promise of electric competition remains just one
more empty promise, “ concluded Hughes.
Citizen Power is a public policy, research, education and advocacy group, which is an officially designated Public Interest Intervenor in all the Western Pennsylvania cases on electricity restructuring.
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