Letter to the Editor: Is Municipal Ownership the Way to Go For Summit Power?
Madison, with its municipal power company, is said to have recovered more quickly after Sandy. Should Summit take notes?
Madison has done much better in this power outage than Summit.
The only explanation I have heard is that their utility is owned by the municipality. This doesn't make sense to me. Branches fall on wires and knock out power irrespective of who owns the utility.
Is it the case that the little borough of Madison was better prepared than mighty First Energy? If so, how come our city government doesn't do the same thing?
Carl Sangree,
Summit
Max
11:34 pm on Saturday, November 24, 2012
Please do not make the mistake of believing that the relatively better performance of repair crews in Madison is due to public ownership of the utility.
The responsiveness to the needs of Madison residents' electric utility system after Hurricane Sandy was superior to Summit's not because Madison owns its utility, but because those responsible for repairing the damage were directly accountable to local authority.
In contrast, JCP&L were, and still are, it appears, accountable to no one. Until JCP&L are made to explain fully and transparently their lack of long- and short-term preparation before the storm, and until their actions and performance leading up to, during, and after the storm are evaluated and analyzed publicly, it is not reasonable to expect them to improve.