WHY THERE ARE GOOD GUYS & BAD GUYS

Let me start by saying that as much as I wanted to tie a Yankee angle into this post, it wasn't easy, but look, I have an outlet and I needed to bring this story to you. It's important to me, and you and millions of Americans and something needs to be done, so I need to tell you all about it... pass it on.

There are certain things in life that are expected or appreciated. For instance, having a job in a certain field where people depend on you and you offer that service, that's pretty important. Or, people who start charities or a foundation for awareness and to cure a disease or to help people that aren't able to help themselves. I find that to be wonderful. For example, I love what David and Erin Robertson are doing with High Socks for Hope. That charity is terrific and David and Erin are giving back to a David's hometown after a natural disaster. David is a public figure and knows he has a duty. He's not selfish. Another example is Natalie Niekro. Natalie is the daughter of baseball great Joe Niekro and she started the Joe Niekro Foundation, a foundation committed to aiding in the research and treatment of aneurysm patients and families. These are 2 foundations I get behind, and yes, there are thousands of them, these are 2 examples and I find them to be extraordinary. Which brings me to my point.

The East Coast had a freak snow storm last weekend and it's been 9 day and still, many people in New Jersey and Connecticut are still without power. Yet, when I opened the Bergen Record today, I noticed probably the most outrageous article ever. It wasn't the article that bothered me as much as it was what was in it. Andrew Tangel has an amazing piece titled Storm Rate Hikes on the Horizon. In it, it talks about how the Utilities are preparing to make their customers pay for restoring the power from the October snow storm and from Hurricane Irene. I realized right then that this may be the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard in my life. In this world, you have people who are unselfish and give back to their communities or to people in need and then you have a service company like PSE&G. Don't forget PSE&G is a utility...a utility that stands for PUBLIC SERVICE ELECTRIC & GAS. Public Service... that means the service they provide is public for all of us...electric and gas. This isn't a corporation like Nabisco where they want to charge more for a box of Chips Ahoy, where you can choose to buy or not to buy it. This is a Public Service that we need and they know we need it and so, now, because we didn't have it, we have to pay more to offset getting it back... getting heat and power back. So, in other words, they are charging us for non usage but charging us because they worked hard to get it back for us. What? It's true. They are charging us all more money for a service, most of us didn't even have for 7 to 9 days. I'm sorry, I must have woken up from my dream and found myself on Go F Yourself Island.

Look, this is a Yankee site, but this isn't a Yankee thing, this is a life thing. I'm not going to get political and it ends with this post. But let's say what this is; I am both outraged and disappointed that a company whose service is to provide electric and gas to millions, isn't providing it unless we pay more....more than what we actually use, just so they can offset the price of a storm. Pathetic. Hey PSE&G, you are in the electric business, not me. I pay you for my usage and for those stupid Solar Panels that I never asked for. (They light 1 light on the telephone pole by the way.) I don't really care that you are trying to do something noble to save the environment and create Green jobs by putting solar panels on poles as much as I care that that $525 million of your Green initiative should have instead went toward a project that could have been used to think of more innovative ways to eliminate mass blackouts. Do I make sense? Electric is your job, so do it. Plan ahead. Natural disasters happen, blackouts happen. There are million dollar companies all over the world that invest in disaster recovery for situations like the snow storms in October. Plan ahead and prioritize what's important instead of screwing customers in a recession.

People died this week because they had no heat, yet, I'm sure that household will soon get a bill in the mail asking for more money to offset the cost of overtime for the utilities workers to put the heat back on, or in that deceased couples case... didn't. Pathetic.Here's an idea Ralph Izzo, the CEO of PSE&G, look around, look at what makes companies successful. Charging a customer more even if they didn't have the service in the first place is ridiculous. Shame on you. Yes, it's true, Izzo doesn't get a bonus, but he gets over $5 million in stock options, for what? Charging us for overtime workers? I'm confused.

Take a page from the playbook of people who run charities and foundations and want nothing in return. Yes, I know you're not a charity, you are a service that people pay for, but use your head. It's like if the Yankees sold tickets at the regular price to go see a Yankee game, and when you got there, it's a another team playing in it's place, because, it's still a Yankee game, it's just not the Yankees! Come on, we're human, not stupid.

Sorry for the rant Ladies and Gentlemen, Yes, I'm a Yankee fan, but I also root for the little guy. These electric companies are ridiculous. If you're not happy, call your congressman. Send this link and stop this non-sense. This isn't a sports thing, it's a life thing, we're all just trying to get by these days, who do these companies think they are anyway?

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