I am dedicated to creating a clean, green, healthy environment that reigns in the soaring costs caused by our electrical power cartel and provides sustainable utility rate relief for seniors and low to moderate income families. The out of control costs of utilities is harming all aspects of our community, including small businesses, middle class families, and those on limited or fixed incomes. As a member of the House Energy Committee, I am dedicated to making the public aware of the abuses of our electric supply system and ensuring your voices are heard on all issues related to public utilities.
- Utility deregulation has not worked, and our soaring utility rate increases need to be reigned in by re-regulating the power generating industry costs and permitting public scrutiny of the process of rates increase and power purchases.
- I testify as a formally registered party in many utility rate increase requests that go before the Public Service Commission (PSC) to ensure that the public has a voice in these proceedings. I will continue to call attention to deceptive bidding practices and suggest ways to appropriately regulate our electrical power suppliers.
- I was proud to join Public Advocate Drew Slater (pictured on right) to fight for a successful reduction in electric rates after the recent windfall corporate tax giveaway. The initial request by Delmarva (DP&L) for a $31 million increase will now be a $6.85 million decrease.
- I successfully petitioned the PSC to enhance billing transparency for Delmarva ratepayers. This will permit electric consumers to see explicit charges in their bill. For instance, the cost to the individual customer for the Bloom Energy subsidy is now a separate line item listed as fuel cell costs. This victory on behalf of Delmarva ratepayers is also a victory for honest, open, and transparent government.
We must invest in renewable, green energy and remove subsidies for fossil fuel industries that divert money from clean energy sources. We cannot afford to invest our limited resources and money into an uninformed and destructive energy policy. Solar, wind, and hydroelectric energy generation is the only viable path for guaranteeing energy independence for the United States and ensuring a return to a vibrant economy. We must also halt the assault on our environment and health and look critically at environmental and ecological hazards such as fracking and crude oil rail transport safety.
- I helped pass clean air and water initiatives, and I started a successful petition effort that garnered over a thousand signatures and was the driving impetus to prevent fracking at the headwaters of the Delaware River.
- I will continue to support the Coastal Zone Protection Act (CZA) against the assaults of the Chamber of Commerce and large industrial polluters. Recent passage of legislation weakening the CZA now threatens to permit heavy industry reuse of sites that will further increase environmental damage and industrial pollution to our delicate coastline.
- I will continue to publicly and vocally oppose the distribution of subsidies and taxpayer money to support the fossil fuel industry, especially after we have made the technological advances to an affordable, healthier, and more effective renewable energy generation capacity. I will continue to fight for investments in wind, solar, and hydroelectric generation against the big moneyed interests and conglomerates that have held our economy hostage for too long.
I am proud to have sponsored and fought for legislation that would have brought the first offshore wind farms to the United States. Unfortunately, federal government inaction in expanding low interest loan terms and subsidies for renewal energy sources discouraged investors from supporting this project. This project’s success would have created thousands of well-paying jobs in the renewable energy industry. I continue to fight for offshore wind power generation in Delaware.- I sponsored legislation to require corporations to clean up their toxic wastes rather than leaving them to fester until taxpayers are left with the cleanup costs.
- I helped put together a comprehensive proposal to relieve our solid waste disposal crisis without further landfill expansion or unhealthy incineration technologies, including statewide curbside recycling at no additional charge to the resident, which is now a reality in Delaware.
- I have worked with legislators in other states as an active member of the National Council of State Legislators (NCSL) to offer resolutions in order to reduce fossil fuel subsidies, prohibit expansion of off-shore drilling, and provide funding for renewable and clean energy sources on a national level.
- I continue to express concern about the hundreds of railcars passing through our community each day. We need to have frank and open dialogue concerning their safety, and I have held hearings looking into the transportation of crude oil by train in Delaware.