PA Public Utility Commision denies right to y2k readiness information

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Today, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission denied the petition filed by several PA Citizens for Y2K readiness information from the Electrical Utilities.

The decision is a slap in the face to the citizens of this commonwealth and the US Senate Special Committee on Y2K which recommended full disclosure.

On a brighter note: the Three Mile Island health lawsuits were reinstated by a Federal Appeals Court.

-- Anonymous, November 04, 1999

Answers

I keep going back to this post to see what the answers are, and there's still nothing here each time. I guess I'll be the first one to answer it. I vacillate between the two following thoughts:

1. " (speechless)"

2. "Where in the world do they get off, telling people that they can't have access to information which is supposedly a right of the public, and a necessity for contingency planning?"

Electricity is not a luxury in our time; for many people it is what keeps them alive, either for reasons of heat and water, or for the more pressing requirements of ventilators and dialysis machines. I'm not a lawsuit-oriented person, but in this case I'd love to see somebody take this to court under the Freedom of Information Act.

-- Anonymous, November 05, 1999


It seems that they don't want to release any questionable information at this time. Which implies that the facts are troublesome. Again, I refer you to the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. The o-rings had leaked a numer of times prior to that fateful flight. The management and engineers kept that quiet and then tried very hard to withhold the contents of the last meeting about the launch. When the facts point to something bad possibly going wrong, mum's the word.

-- Anonymous, November 06, 1999

Scott and Ann,

It is painfully obvious that the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission is much more concerned about the well-being of the companies that it supposedly 'regulates' than it is about the health and welfare of the people who live in Pennsylvania.

Although this is a sad state of affairs it is not at all surprising. Our political system is a 'moneyocracy' in which elected officials need to raise massive amounts of money in order to pay for the political advertising which they must have in order to be considered 'serious' candidates for public office and in order to get elected. The result is that after they get elected, public officials are very beholden to the large contributors to their campaigns. This is true of both Democrats and Republicans. It is the very nature of our current system of governance. The political appointees essentially do the bidding of the elected officials who appoint them to entities such as the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission; the officials who are beholden to the moneyed special interests.

IMHO the answer to this problem is to take special interest money out of our political system by instituting public financing of all political campaigns. Only after this is done will elected officials have more motivation to represent the general interest of the people rather than the special interests of their financial contributors.

-- Anonymous, November 07, 1999


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