February 19th Patrick spoke with State Representative Priscilla Mead and State Senator Bruce Johnson, co-sponsors of Ohio's deregulation legislation. They expect to reduce residents' electric bills by ten percent. Ohio utilities and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio disagree with consumer advocates and city officials about the need for community choice, saying that increased competition will be enough to lower consumer electric bills. Utility companies oppose plans that allow local governments to choose to represent all of their residents, preferring that consumers buy power from their current electric company until they individually choose not to. If not granted community choice options, local governments would have to sign residents up before purchasing electricity for them.
Local governments have a great deal of experience in soliciting bids for other services.
Towns can help provide electricity the way many provide fire, police, garbage and ambulance services now. Tom Coyne is the mayor of Brook Park, a suburb of Cleveland. In Northeast Ohio, we've been hurt because our rates have been higher than the rest of the state for so long. In a situation where the cities represent consumers, we don't have to pay boards of directors or satisfy stockholders. We just have to cover our administrative costs.