Community Corner
Opinion: Colts Neck Foresees Savings with New Electricity Supplier
Big Government comes to Colts Neck in the form of opt-out "energy savings"
Apparently, I can’t be trusted to make decisions about how to handle my energy needs in my own household. The Township Committee awarded a contract which could “save” consumers 9.5 percent below the price CURRENTLY charged by JCP&L.
Here are my problems with this:
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a) The local government should not be in the business of negotiating bids with energy providers on my behalf. It’s not like we all look to local and big government for their efficient use of money - does anyone remember $600 dollar hammers?
b) ConEdison won over a company that was willing to cap their prices to be equal to the JCP&L pricing. This means that even if it was a bad decision to change the power supplier for the 11k households in your district - in the very worst case scenario - pricing would be the same if we stuck with JCP&L. Instead, we get no assurances about costs from ConEdison - we could save 9.5% or we could be paying 9.5% more next year.
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c) Opt-out programs are not the way to go. If you want to provide value to your constituents- you would make the “savings” opt-in. I shouldn’t have to opt-out of your program. I am completely happy with my current situation and knowing that my power comes from JCP&L and I have one number to call when I have a problem is comforting.
How exactly can the Mayor quote that not having a cap is “‘It’s as good as the cap without actually having the cap?’ - when clearly having a cap would be the better option. When is NOT having a cap as good as not having a cap? Never.
Think about it this way, your credit card interest is capped at a maximum number by law. Do you think that we could trust credit card companies not to go above that maximum amount if we didn’t cap it? If you think yes, do a quick google search on payday loans and how they skirt the law to go above the maximum amount allowed.
The only person who seems to understand the value of a cap is Jarrett Engle - who states - “When you have a cap in place and it is kind of status quo … it takes the questioning out of [what could happen] and adds that level of guarantee.”
Yes - having a cap is better than not having a cap regardless of what our Mayor says above.
How about the town worry itself with the bigger issues and leave my choice of energy provider to me. What’s next? The town is going to tell me about savings on trash bags that I can use?
