WAMU 88.5 : News

Filed Under:

Pepco Plan Takes Too Long, Says One Local Leader

By: Matt Bush // March 9, 2011
Play associated audio
comments

An independent study called the utilities plan "cobbled together," saying it was created with a "ready, shoot, aim" approach. Pepco put together the plan following a rash of lengthy power outages caused by snow and thunderstorms last year.

Montgomery County Council Vice President Roger Berliner agreed with the report that Pepco did not put a lot of thought into its plan, adding it takes too long to reach the national average for reliability.

"Five years is way too long. This is an emergency. This is not business as usual. From my perspective, it ought to be three years and it ought to get us to the top quartile," he says.

Pepco ranks in the bottom half nationwide when it comes to both the frequency of outages in its system, and the length of those outages.

The Maryland General Assembly is considering a bill that would impose reliability standards on Pepco, that, if not met, would mean the utility could not raise the rates it charges its customers.

Arts & Culture

NPR

Decades Later And Across An Ocean, A Novel Gets Its Due

John Williams' Stoner sold just 2,000 copies when it was originally published in 1965. It's now acknowledged as a classic work, is a best-seller across Europe and the No. 1 novel in the Netherlands.

Food

NPR

Giant Renaissance Food People Descend Upon New York

Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a 16th-century artist who liked to play with his food, transforming it into the building blocks of many of his fantastical portraits. Artist Philip Haas has taken those portraits out of museums, reinterpreting them as colossal statues that interact with the natural environment.

Politics

NPR

Political Takeaways: Headaches For The White House

Controversies dominated this past week's political headlines, leaving the Obama White House on the defensive, trying to contain any lasting damage. Host Rachel Martin talks with NPR's Mara Liasson.

Technology

NPR

Young Kenyans Build Mobile Apps For Local Use

College students and recent graduates crammed the top floor of a tech hub in Nairobi for a competition built around the theme "Solutions for the Next Billion Mobile Users." Africa has more than 600 million mobile phone users (approximately 11 percent of the global total) – and the number is growing.

Leave a Comment

Help keep the conversation civil. Please refer to our Terms of Use and Code of Conduct before posting your comments.