Pepco suggests suffering during the heatwave to save on bills it increased

In a “helpful tips” story from WUSA9, Pepco officials recommended increasing your thermostat by a whopping 7-10°F in order to save on electric bills. This “tip” is especially tone deaf as alarms sound over extreme heat warnings in the DMV, with temperatures expected to spike to 105-110°F. While the story quotes Pepco officials, nowhere does it state that Pepco is a main reason your bill is so high: for nearly five years now, the monopoly utility has campaigned on increasing your rates while slow-walking energy efficient initiatives like rooftop solar and DERs.

Let’s be clear: the people who will suffer the most from Pepco’s actions are the elderly, disabled, and low-income households. By Pepco’s own reporting, the utility shutoff power to 1,545 households in May alone, with 17,357 disconnection notices sent out. Their spikes in energy costs caused 23.9% of all DC residents to fall behind on their bills. Of that number, 59% of all low-income residents are behind on their payments to Pepco. This means the majority of low-income residents are indebted to DC’s monopoly utility.

When we have a utility controlled by shareholders, they will risk our health, safety, and comfort at every turn if it means turning a profit. Shutting off our AC during a heatwave should not be the new normal - we need public power now.