We depend upon electricity as much as the air we breathe. Yet most go about their business without giving electricity a second thought. Few people understand how under-regulated utilities really are. The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission only reviews utility projects after they are built, not before.

Few realize that Puget Sound Energy customers pay the highest electricity rates in Washington. Few know that PSE derives 37 percent of its electricity from burning coal, and a full 60 percent from burning fossil fuels. Few know that PSE is owned by foreign private equity shareholders, not publically-held. And even fewer realize that despite increasing population and economic growth, electricity demand is falling. How can that be? Today’s energy-sipping appliances, efficient building techniques, and micro-generation have broken the link between economic growth and electricity demand.

Few know that PSE is proposing a project that will cost ratepayers over $1 billion. Energize Eastside must be needed, right? Why would a utility propose something that isn’t necessary? PSE’s revenues are falling along with electricity demand. Their costs are not. It’s about money. Energize Eastside will cost all ratepayers dearly. Energize Eastside is nothing more than an extension cord strung through four Puget Sound eastside cities to power PSE’s profits.

Russell Borgmann

Bellevue