Penn Power

A major Pennsylvania environmental group has endorsed competition’s benefits, just as rate caps expired across the state and millions of consumers gained the ability to shop for their electricity on January 1. PennFuture’s report, “Consumers Win: A Decade of Electricity Competition,” touts the success of competition, saying “the benefits to Pennsylvania ratepayers cannot be disputed.”
 

Lower-cost electricity options in Western Pennsylvania are “the kind of significant savings envisioned by competition’s crusaders” a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist writes in a recent column. The columnist’s effort to explain the competitive electricity market to consumers deserves applause.
 
But the relationship between the region’s power distribution utility and the competitive power supplier who offered the columnist less expensive electricity was confused in the article, and should be put in proper context.