The question remains, however, how small consumers are to be organized into marketable entities. 100,000 stranded consumers would be automatically grouped into each RMA and bid out to the lowest bidder. Proponents estimate the creation of 80 RMAs statewide. Community Choice advocates say this falls short of a positive agenda for competitive electricity supply. Unlike Community Choice, which authorizes local governments to define community goals and control the competitive bidding process for its residents and businesses, the RMAs are not subject to community input or control over the bidding process.
Local communities can look after our own interests better than that.
Political pressure to negotiate a deregulation law appears to be mounting in the state capitol. Ohio Senate President Richard H. Finan, a Cincinnati Republican, recently indicated he wants the legislature to take up deregulation of the state's electric industry as soon as they convene in January. Environmental activists say special interests will try to force a bailout and may threaten the prospects for Community Choice in Ohio, which is a key state in the nation's electric industry deregulation debate. We have a very Republican legislature and governor, all prepared to do the bidding of the big users and utilities that bought their campaign air time. But we also have a very strong, savvy grassroots network in this state that understands the power of local organizing.