NJ electric customers have been given the short end of the stick, and we are tired of it. Utilities are allowed to operate as a monopoly -- we have no say in who we get our electric from. Yet they are not putting customers first and not living up to their end of the bargain. It’s time to hold their feet to the fire.

Over 99% of our power outages are from failures of the local distribution system (lines connecting the substations or transformers to our homes and businesses.)  Despite this, utilities have neglected the proper maintenance, upgrade and preparedness of the distribution systems, because there is no money to be made there.  Instead, utilities have aggressively pursued other projects, like high voltage transmission lines, because they more profitable to them… even though transmission problems account for less than 1% of our power outages.

They use the money they get from our rates to pursue those projects that would help them instead of focusing on fixing the issues that would help us the most -- the distribution issues -- leaving customers (us) in the dark and the cold.   This happened after Hurricane Irene in 2011, superstorm Sandy in 2012, storms in the ensuing years and now, winter storms Quinn and Riley in 2018.  Enough is enough. We are held captive by our power companies (we can’t switch even if we wanted to), and they are allowed to act in their own self-interest and put us last, with no repercussions.

Under current law, fines that can be imposed on utilities are a measly $100 to $250 per day for leaving thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of customers in the dark and cold!  Does this make sense? NO. We deserve better!

We applaud Governor Phil Murphy's call for the Board of Public Utilities to investigate responses to recent storm outages.  The BPU will be holding at least 5 public hearings. If we want change, we need rules and regulations that force utilities to focus on their paying customers and that have teeth to be effective!

Sign and share this petition if you feel as frustrated and “powerless” as many of us feel.  Please "opt-in" your email address so that we can provide occasional updates and let you know if there is anything else you can do to make Trenton know that there are a lot of us, and that the public demands better from our public utilities.

WHEN YOU SIGN, PUT YOUR ELECTRIC COMPANY IN THE COMMENTS. WE WANT TO KNOW WHO HAS THE MOST CUSTOMERS FEELING “POWERLESS.”

After you sign, you can also join others in the same boat on our Facebook group to see more stats and share your story ("Feeling POWERLESS"):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FeelingPOWERLESSinNJ/

Website:  https://www.njcharge.org

Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/pg/Consumers-Helping-Affect-Regulation-of-Gas-Electric-232815117496665/posts/?ref=page_internal

The group that set up this petition, CHARGE (Consumers Helping Affect Regulation of Gas and Electric) is focused on getting NJ customers a seat at the table when it comes to how our energy utilities are run and managed. We deserve better for our money. Our public utilities should be putting the public first.