(The initiative) is a public/private partnership designed to attract and retain the businesses and high paying jobs. |
This spectrum represents America's best opportunity to foster state-of-the-art public safety communications. If this spectrum is auctioned to the private sector, the nation forever loses its best shot at fixing this issue once and for all. |
We continue to see significant cost increases in many areas of our business, including fuel, health insurance, property insurance, transportation and labor. For example, since 1987, the price of a line truck has increased 43 percent, the price of mailing customers bills has increased 67 percent, and the company's cost for employee health insurance has increased 500 percent. In addition, Duquesne Light is in the midst of a significant capital investment program, which is taking place throughout our service territory. It is designed to replace older, outdated and inefficient equipment and to ensure that the region will be able to support new business growth and other forms of economic development by meeting the changing and expanding energy demands of the new century. |
We have begun to talk to folks on the Hill about this and ask for an opportunity to have debate before it's too late. While we may not have much time, we have some time for the debate to go on. |
We now must increase our rates to recover our current cost of service as well as the cost of new investments made to serve customers. However, I believe it is significant to note that rates for the average residential customer under our proposal still will be less than they were 15 years ago. |