Too Much Power Equals
Too Much Greed
By Senator Lisa M. Boscola
How much do you trust big corporations today? Do you really believe that Exxon Mobil has absolutely nothing to do with the rising price of gasoline? Do you trust that big drug companies aren’t ripping us off when the same pills we take cost 50 percent less in other countries? Do you believe that AIG executives really deserved million-dollar bonuses after they bankrupted the company and took a taxpayer-financed bailout?
If our country’s current financial mess taught us anything, we’ve learned the hard way that greed is really the driving force behind a lot of corporate decisions. Corporations exist to make as much profit as possible, so you shouldn’t expect any corporate executive to tell you the truth as long as telling a lie is more profitable for his company.
I hope you keep that in mind over the next seven months. Because the people who run your “friendly neighborhood power company” are going to take a lot of the money you pay them to keep our lights on and use it to convince you that electric deregulation is “good for you.” In fact, you will be paying for the commercials they’ll be running to tell you exactly why you should be happy about paying higher electric bills – because it’s “good for you!”
Of course, the truth is that electric deregulation is only good for the companies that sell electricity. Once rate caps come off at the end of this year, their corporate profits will double – and they are already making record profits with rate caps still in place.
When I called for extending electric rate caps two years ago, an army of utility lobbyists and their corporate lawyers flew to the State Capitol from Houston, Chicago, New York City and Washington, DC. They each tried to convince me that my efforts were illegal, unconstitutional and sure to plunge all of Pennsylvania into total darkness because power companies would soon go bankrupt unless they could raise the electric rates we all pay by 50 percent.
But, one lobbyist – an “energy expert” from Manhattan – left an impression on me that I will remember for the rest of my life. In fact, his words continue to motivate me to this day to keep fighting on this important issue.
He said, “Senator, can I just ask you why you are doing this?”
It was a fair question, to be sure. So I started to explain that electric deregulation had failed to produce either lower prices or more competition. On top of that, power companies were making billions of dollars in record profits even with rate caps still in place and – before I could continue, he stopped me.
“No, no, no,” he said, waving his arms in disgust. “That’s not what I’m talking about! Why are you even trying to take on these big utility companies? Don’t you know that you are going to lose? You can’t possibly win against them! They’re too big and too powerful. They will squash you!”
It’s that same mentality of putting “profits before people” that caused the economic crisis we find ourselves in today. It may be easy for Alan Greenspan to admit he “made a mistake” in trusting that free markets could regulate themselves without government oversight, but it is going to be a lot harder for people who lost their jobs, their savings, their investments and their homes to ever recover what they lost.
Big companies, with huge amounts of PAC money, high-priced lawyers and political lobbyists at their disposal, have gained too much power and too much influence over our lives. In fact, some elected officials have forgotten that democracy is government “by the people and for the people” – not government “by big corporations and for bigger corporate profits.”
When greed finally got out of control last year, any sense of common decency that ever existed in the corporate world disappeared faster than the money in your 401(k). Financial institutions exploited people for profit and Wall Street traders took reckless gambles with other people’s so-called “safe investments.” HMOs hired doctors who were more than willing to deny the legitimate claims of sick people, rather than pay for the health care they were entitled to. And that’s why companies like AIG still keep tossing around million-dollar bonuses like horseshoes at the company picnic – even though taxpayers are now footing the bill.
Electric deregulation will soon take a much bigger bite out of your family budget – at a time when a lot of our friends and neighbors and family members are out of work, without a paycheck or health care for their kids, and really struggling to make ends meet.
It’s time for the people’s representatives to get on with the people’s business. This is a fight that matters to all of us, especially seniors who are living on fixed incomes and small business owners who will be forced to go out of business when higher electric bills hit. Thousands of jobs will be lost, not just here, but all across Pennsylvania.
Like I said to the lobbyist who threatened to squash me: “I’m going to stand up for what I believe in – and I won’t apologize for not backing down.” Neither should you! So stand up and join me. Don’t be intimidated by these big corporations. Now is the time to fight back against corporate greed and keep electric rate caps on until we have “real” competition.
How much do you trust big corporations today? Do you really believe that Exxon Mobil has absolutely nothing to do with the rising price of gasoline? Do you trust that big drug companies aren’t ripping us off when the same pills we take cost 50 percent less in other countries? Do you believe that AIG executives really deserved million-dollar bonuses after they bankrupted the company and took a taxpayer-financed bailout?
If our country’s current financial mess taught us anything, we’ve learned the hard way that greed is really the driving force behind a lot of corporate decisions. Corporations exist to make as much profit as possible, so you shouldn’t expect any corporate executive to tell you the truth as long as telling a lie is more profitable for his company.
I hope you keep that in mind over the next seven months. Because the people who run your “friendly neighborhood power company” are going to take a lot of the money you pay them to keep our lights on and use it to convince you that electric deregulation is “good for you.” In fact, you will be paying for the commercials they’ll be running to tell you exactly why you should be happy about paying higher electric bills – because it’s “good for you!”
Of course, the truth is that electric deregulation is only good for the companies that sell electricity. Once rate caps come off at the end of this year, their corporate profits will double – and they are already making record profits with rate caps still in place.
When I called for extending electric rate caps two years ago, an army of utility lobbyists and their corporate lawyers flew to the State Capitol from Houston, Chicago, New York City and Washington, DC. They each tried to convince me that my efforts were illegal, unconstitutional and sure to plunge all of Pennsylvania into total darkness because power companies would soon go bankrupt unless they could raise the electric rates we all pay by 50 percent.
But, one lobbyist – an “energy expert” from Manhattan – left an impression on me that I will remember for the rest of my life. In fact, his words continue to motivate me to this day to keep fighting on this important issue.
He said, “Senator, can I just ask you why you are doing this?”
It was a fair question, to be sure. So I started to explain that electric deregulation had failed to produce either lower prices or more competition. On top of that, power companies were making billions of dollars in record profits even with rate caps still in place and – before I could continue, he stopped me.
“No, no, no,” he said, waving his arms in disgust. “That’s not what I’m talking about! Why are you even trying to take on these big utility companies? Don’t you know that you are going to lose? You can’t possibly win against them! They’re too big and too powerful. They will squash you!”
It’s that same mentality of putting “profits before people” that caused the economic crisis we find ourselves in today. It may be easy for Alan Greenspan to admit he “made a mistake” in trusting that free markets could regulate themselves without government oversight, but it is going to be a lot harder for people who lost their jobs, their savings, their investments and their homes to ever recover what they lost.
Big companies, with huge amounts of PAC money, high-priced lawyers and political lobbyists at their disposal, have gained too much power and too much influence over our lives. In fact, some elected officials have forgotten that democracy is government “by the people and for the people” – not government “by big corporations and for bigger corporate profits.”
When greed finally got out of control last year, any sense of common decency that ever existed in the corporate world disappeared faster than the money in your 401(k). Financial institutions exploited people for profit and Wall Street traders took reckless gambles with other people’s so-called “safe investments.” HMOs hired doctors who were more than willing to deny the legitimate claims of sick people, rather than pay for the health care they were entitled to. And that’s why companies like AIG still keep tossing around million-dollar bonuses like horseshoes at the company picnic – even though taxpayers are now footing the bill.
Electric deregulation will soon take a much bigger bite out of your family budget – at a time when a lot of our friends and neighbors and family members are out of work, without a paycheck or health care for their kids, and really struggling to make ends meet.
It’s time for the people’s representatives to get on with the people’s business. This is a fight that matters to all of us, especially seniors who are living on fixed incomes and small business owners who will be forced to go out of business when higher electric bills hit. Thousands of jobs will be lost, not just here, but all across Pennsylvania.
Like I said to the lobbyist who threatened to squash me: “I’m going to stand up for what I believe in – and I won’t apologize for not backing down.” Neither should you! So stand up and join me. Don’t be intimidated by these big corporations. Now is the time to fight back against corporate greed and keep electric rate caps on until we have “real” competition.
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