Nearly 100 people testify to the DC Council regarding failures of the PSC and utility regulators

On Friday, February 27, nearly 100 people attended the DC Council’s oversight hearing for the Public Service Commission in person and through Zoom. The testimony was as expected: ballooning electric and gas bills, local climate laws ignored, and an ineffective PSC with leaders that have routinely failed to meet the moment. Organizers from We Power DC, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, Sierra Club, and more all shared statistics on the sky-rocketing rates for Pepco and Washington Gas, which have gone up exponentially since Chairman Emile Thompson’s appointment by Mayor Bowser in 2021.

In this testimony, witnesses described bills spiking by hundreds of dollars without a proper explanation from the utilities other than “colder than normal weather.” Others testified on Chairman Thompson and Commissioner Trabue’s failure to protect customers from Pepco and Washington Gas’s greed, citing huge swaths of DC households burdened with utility debt. In addition, witnesses described how the current PSC leadership defers to the utilities for data, planning, and other core decisions rather than properly regulating these monopoly utilities as a proper PSC should. This is perhaps one of the several reasons that the latest PSC-approved Pepco rate hike is being fought out in DC Appeals Court, and why the cost to deliver methane gas is more expensive than the actual gas itself.

Dozens of people testifying demanded that Chairman Thompson and Commissioner Trabue not be reappointed to the PSC, instead calling for new leaders that can truly achieve lower bills and better oversight for DC residents.