"Fossil Fool's Day" Prank Targets Utility Company

By Sabri Ben-Achour

Utility company Pepco was the victim of an April Fool's day prank. Flyers and press releases were distributed announcing, falsely, that the company would switch to solar and wind energy by 2020.

Pepco customers, and some reporters, awoke to fliers and emails announcing big changes at the utility company.

"We are going to make a 100 percent transition away from fossil fuel powered generation to sustainable energy," says a Pepco-spokesman impostor who wouldn't give his real name.

The impostor's group calls itself the Greenwash Guerrillas, and it put up a fake but authentic looking Pepco website announcing an end to rate hikes and coal powered electricity as a "fossil fool's day joke."

"It's the 21st century, it's foolish to run an economy on fossil fuels and the point of today is to draw attention to that," says the impostor.

Real Pepco was underwhelmed by the gesture.

"All of the information on the fake release was false," says real Pepco Spokesperson Bob Hainey. Hainey says he's doing his best to correct the misinformation.

"The biggest thing people need to remember is we do not generate electricity, we buy it on the open market," he says.

Hainey says the company is examining it's legal options.