Home » Letter to the Editor: Borders’ Biased Broadsides and Energy Non-Transparency

Letter to the Editor: Borders’ Biased Broadsides and Energy Non-Transparency

by Community Contributor

To the Editor:

Andrew Borders, well-known Democrats’ cheerleader and political crony, is at it again in his recent letter to the editor. Who knew that his gratitude for being appointed to the Zoning Board by his fellow Democrats on the Hopewell Township Committee would result in a multitude of political attacks on John Hart, the only Township Committee Republican?

Mr. Borders, by his own admission is a recent transplant to Hopewell Township, while Mr. Hart has spent decades devoting his time to serve our township. The blatant political nature of Mr. Borders calculated attacks can best been seen against the back-drop of the Township Committee meeting of March 25, 2019, which can be viewed for yourself on the township website.

At that meeting, the agenda listed the first reading of an ordinance that, upon passage, would be the first step to slam every residential electric user in Hopewell Township into an Energy Aggregation program without first asking for our consent. No prior notice. No work session. No transparency.

Energy Aggregation is a theory, allowed by law, that if electric users in a municipality band together, maybe their electric rates will be lower than if they don’t band together. Maybe not.

Due to deregulation, energy is a commodity, just like corn or wheat, and, like any commodity, the price is subject to pricing forces in the marketplace. There can be no proof that there would be any actual savings because there are no guarantees in a marketplace, which is based on the law of supply and demand.

Was there a ground-swell of public support to justify introduction? No. In fact, but for a handful of speakers, who were outraged that Mayor McLaughlin and her majority intended to put the Township into an Energy Aggregation program without telling some 6,000 affected users beforehand, the public was completely unaware that they were about to be slammed.  A Township Committee majority can force the public into their gamble, while they hope and pray that there will be savings. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of analytical thinking. In essence, this prospect is no different than robo-callers, who promise energy savings without possessing the guaranteed ability to deliver.

Meanwhile, the public remained blissfully ignorant that there are hoops that must be jumped through to remove themselves from Energy Aggregation to get back to their original energy supplier. Energy Aggregation is a stacked deck.  It is an opt-out program, not an opt-in program. Maybe the public would be unaware that they were slammed into an unwanted energy supplier in the first place. This time, with the support of John Hart, the majority backed-down. So far.

Every time I think that the Township Democrats’ majority could not be less transparent, they do something to be less transparent without objection from Democrats’ future candidate, Andrew Borders and Democrats’ current candidate for Township Committee Courtney Peters-Manning. In fact, in her letter to the editor, Ms. Peters-Manning is not hesitant in the least to force some 6,000 residential energy users into Energy Aggregation without any public input whatsoever or in the face of mind-boggling non-transparency.

What did Andrew Borders speak about that night?  Political attacks on Mr. Hart combined with deafening silence regarding his fellow-Democrats’ energy non-transparency.

Harvey Lester,

Titusville

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