Latest / Chuck Douglas / More on AEPs outragous practices

Transcript

More on AEPs outragous practices · Chuck Douglas

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's wrong. It's flat out wrong that we have to
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: take it. That's simple.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: I am not anti capitalism, I'm not anti profit, but
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: there needs to be a reasonable limit placed, especially when
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: you're talking about items that are required for the survival
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: of you man, nit ty, Is that clear enough? You
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: must be able to heat your home. You must be
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: able to drink water. Your body cannot live without water.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: You must be able to have electricity, because everything we
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: do is electric anymore. My god, we have government programs
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: that give you free cell phones, free internet access, free
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: school lunches, free blah blah. Stuff that isn't necessary but
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: makes more life or it makes life more convenient. Why
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: would you not have some sort of program to to
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: make sure that these profits don't get out of hand
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: with with stuff you need to live. I don't think
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: it's asking too much setting limits on the acceptable profit
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: margin for public utilities. Stockholders can make money, public utilities
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: can keep working capital. But but three times, I mean,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: we're talking billions of dollars and then want a rate increase.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: It's offensive. A two one nine eight six A two
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: one WUTV and Pat no, I guess not. Pat dropped
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: off all right, Debbie's been on hold. The next longest
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: drun six to ten WUTV and Debbie.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Hey, Chuck Man, I feel your pain. However, got start it.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: One of your previous callers mentioned, well, we just need
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: to get rid of all the Democrats, and you know
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: what that's That's a lame that's a lame.
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: Excuse me, I.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Think he was. He was saying that sarcastically. He didn't
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: mean that.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: Well. I would like to remind everybody that is that
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: our Republican governor gave all these big Intel, Google and
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: Amazon moving in. Trust me, I did cheap my own
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: construction work forever. I was living well off the hog
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: for a while while they were moving in. But I'm
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: also I'm a homeowner, and he gave them so many
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: tax abatements. We need to start taxing these companies and
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: lame just get build there and start doing all this
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: stuff without paying your fair share.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: That is something that Democrat mayoral candidate Joe Motile and
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I agree on. We don't agree on everything or even
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: a lot, but he is a real watchdog when it
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: comes to the uh those tax abatements, and the City
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: of Columbus hands him out like trick or treat candy
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: and they do.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: It's crazy kills a friend of mine.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: I admire that man.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I get along with him.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Support me when I really needed help. He's just a
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: good guy.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I get along with him well. But it's not because
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: we agree on stuff. It's because he's true to what
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: he believes. Even if we're in disagreement. He's true to
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: what he believes, and I can respect that from anyone.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: And the fact that ultimately he's looking for two things.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: We have different routes to get to it. I see
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: it going one way, he sees another. But it all
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: comes down to two things. Watch dog for the public
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: dollar and accountability to the public for your policies, practices,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: and procedures. That's what we both want out of city Hall.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: So we can agree on that.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and there's another thing. I mean, I back in
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: the day, back in the eighties, when I graduated high school,
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: before I went to college, I joined a lobbyist group
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: and I worked with them. I think we need to
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: really take a good look at all these lobbyist groups,
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: because every pharmaceuticals have them. Everybody's got a lobbyist group,
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: or they are given politicians money on the side to
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: vote certain ways for things, and it's not right.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: The exchange of money is illegal. But what happens is
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: that lobbyists make sure that you go on vacation to
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: Cancun with them if the vote happens to go the.
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: Way they want exactly.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: And I think we really need to take a real
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: hard look Republicans, Democrats, independents, whoever you are at lobbyists groups.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: You know why, Debbie, You know why so many of
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: them are so effective though, because many of them ran
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: for office and served in those offices before they became
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: lobbyists to go to those offices and get their way.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: They were part.
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: Of the process so that they learned the ins and
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: outs and how to get in the back doors. And
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: that means that makes them very dangerous because they know
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: probably more than they should.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: I agree with you, but tax abatements, and our Republican
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: governor gave all these corporations tax abatements. Well, I'm paying taxes,
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: you're paying taxes. My electric bill goes up, my gas
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: bill goes up, my water bill goes up because I'm
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: paying for all these corporations that are using bukou more
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: than I could ever use in a life.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, and that's that's the governor, that's the mayor. That's all.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: You know, both political stripes, Debbie, you and I were
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: on the same page with that one. Of course I'm
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: no fan of, especially since COVID of Mike DeWine. We
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: got to stop giving our money away to the corporations.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: You know, for whatever the lobbyists say they want, we
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: give them because we want the business, We want the
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: bestiness here in Ohio. You need to keep the people
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: here in Ohio. Take care of the people of Ohio.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Without the people, there is no dag going Ohio. We
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: are Ohio, and we've got to quit taking it up
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: the nose while you're handing.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: In a way.
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: Look, in addition to all this stuff, you've got the
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: cutting benefits. I was grousing about that last week. We
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: want to limit. Oh you know, some mom can't use
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: our food stamp card to go get a birthday cake,
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: for God's sake, for her little five year old because
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: the birthday cake is sweet and we can't have that,
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: can't buy him some kool aid for the birthday party.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: So the kid gets no birthday cake and birthday party.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Because we're protecting you, but our tax free holiday for
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: back to school allows you to go purchase a new
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: handgun and get it tags free. Stupid, quit kissing political butts,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: and makes some sense.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: That's how you serve the people.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, did I tell you it was a
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Howard b O kind of night A two one WTV
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: and is a number ASUSI or on the Legacy Retirement
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Group dot com phone lines?
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Hi?
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: Hi, Yes, I just wanted to make a comment also
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: that the pu CEO has some blame in all this,
• 7:07
  Speaker 5: because every time it comes up for a vote, it
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: goes before the PUCO and they approve these rate increases. I.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes, that's what I said. They've become a rubber stamp.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: When I try to get somebody from there to come
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: here to talk to us, they don't even have anybody
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: in that capacity. How accountable are you when you don't
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: even have somebody to come talk to the people you're
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: supposed to represent.
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: Oh, that's interesting.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Makes me very sad, and it makes me even more
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: angry because look, it's not like I can go down
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: to AEP and go in and see the chairman of
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the board, the CEO, the board members or anything like that.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: That's your job as the organization you're supposed to be.
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: If I can't talk to you, how are you representing me?
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: Yes?
• 7:53
  Speaker 5: And I don't think they've ever turned anything down.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I don't know if they have, or if so, it
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: was probably small and insignificant. I mean we I you know,
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: I was complaining with Mark a couple of weeks ago
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: too when this was first announced about these record profits.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: I remember that d ratio coming through, and I remember
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: we had to our rates had to go out because
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: poles and lines came down, the winds knock stuff down.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: And I'm thinking, wait a minute, I got to carry
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: insurance on my car. If my dog bites somebody, I
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: better have insurance to cover that. Why doesn't AEP have
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: insurance for their lines? That you chose to be in
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: that business, this is something that can happen. Why do
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: you have to raise my rates to pay for your
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: lack of insurance coverage?
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: That's not my fault.
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: And I think there's story writers on there to cover that.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Well.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: But why why do that if you can just get
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: the money out of us? Susie, thank you for being
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: out there.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Have you ever called before you a first timer?
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: I'm a first timer. I listened all the time, but
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: I'm a first timer.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Well, bless your heart.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I hope to hear from you more often. You have
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: a wonderful evening, and thanks for playing with us tonight
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: two nine eight eight six eight two n WTV. And
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to get through everybody here before we have
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: to say goodbye. Judy, you are on six n WUTV.
• 9:10
  Speaker 6: Yes, you uh about these this increase in all these utilities,
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: electric and the gas. I have always been very conservative.
• 9:19
  Speaker 6: I still am. And every bill I get, I am
• 9:23
  Speaker 6: afraid to open it because they are all going over
• 9:27
  Speaker 6: one hundred dollars. My cable bill has gone up, and
• 9:31
  Speaker 6: they say noon improved. Well, no, it's actually the same
• 9:35
  Speaker 6: that I've had. I'm in the point, I honest honestly don't.
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: I don't know what to do. I'm on a fixed income,
• 9:43
  Speaker 6: which was always uh, you know fine before, and I don't.
• 9:50
  Speaker 6: I am not an extravagant liver, extravagant person, you know.
• 9:57
  Speaker 6: I was brought up, you know, waste not want not,
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: that's my theory. But and I'm using the same same
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: power and the as far as the gas. In the summer,
• 10:10
  Speaker 6: my gas bill would always drop because all I really
• 10:14
  Speaker 6: have in gas in the summer is the hot water heater,
• 10:18
  Speaker 6: which it's just me and I don't do that much
• 10:21
  Speaker 6: laundry and I usually use cold water. And it's just
• 10:26
  Speaker 6: it's getting to the point where it's getting kind of scary.
• 10:29
  Speaker 6: And they say, well, we can, you know, set you
• 10:32
  Speaker 6: up on payment. No, I don't want to payment. I'm
• 10:35
  Speaker 6: not going to be paying on electric bill, you know,
• 10:40
  Speaker 6: for ten years or something. And then when I heard
• 10:42
  Speaker 6: you talking about the uh millions of dollars that the
• 10:46
  Speaker 6: power company has made in profit, I thought it just, oh,
• 10:50
  Speaker 6: it just makes me so aggrivated.
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: To me, it's billions, billions, would be three times the
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: profit from last year. And here's something else. You just
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: brought up hot water heaters. This is something else. The
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: government has subsidized people who bought big sport utility vehicles
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: to get American vehicles on the road. They subsidize all
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: kinds of stuff. It would make perfect sense for the
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: federal government to subsidize your installation of a tankless water heater.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: What's the point of heating water when you're not using it? Well,
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: you don't need it's just you by yourself. A tankless
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: water heater your gas consumption would go down to nothing
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: and it would only make hot water when you needed it.
• 11:29
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and I've heard those tankless ones there are lots
• 11:31
  Speaker 6: more expensive and they're not even recommended that much.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:35
  Speaker 6: Well, I've got to had to get a new water
• 11:38
  Speaker 6: heater several years ago, and I said something about the
• 11:41
  Speaker 6: tankless and they said, well, they really aren't behind tankless
• 11:46
  Speaker 6: water heaters, So I don't know.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they've come all the way in the last few years.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: I'll give them credit for that. And they are more expensive,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: but the fact that I'm not going to be paying
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: to heat water all the time, Yeah, it's I think
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: it's a great expense myself, but hey, everyon makes everybody
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: has to make that decision. I got to run, JUDI
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: thanks very much for the call. I appreciate you. Have
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: a good night.
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: John. You'll wrap us up on six to n WTVN.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah, Chuck, the utility tell me is like ap Columbus Water,
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: so forth, so on. The thing is, none of those
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: companies are owned by the city or Columbus or the
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: state of Ohio.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Well, the city of City of Columbus owns their division
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: of water and sewer they operated.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: But if you talk to the employees and ask them
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: who they work for. They're not going to tell you
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: the City at Columbus.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Will you pay your bill to the Columbus City Treasurer?
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, I'm just telling you, like crack dealers.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Who owns them?
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: I don't remember what my buddy told me, but it's
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: not the City at Columbus. But it really doesn't matter.
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: You know, the problem is you need something, We've got
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: what you need, and we're gonna charge you whatever we want.
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: They're like crack dealers.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Well, I said the same thing about gasoline. But remember,
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: you know price gouging. Everybody talked about price gouging, that
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: the government was going to take at you against gas
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: stations for price gouging after September eleventh. Well, why aren't
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: you price gouging when you're doing this to us on
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: our electric bill, when you're doing this to us on
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: our gas bill, that's price gouging.
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: Too.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Correct, And you know I agree with you. I need
• 13:32
  Speaker 4: this to live. Go go gouge something else.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: You know, right, you're not you gouge.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: This isn't a luxury item, this isn't an optional item.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: I have to have this to live and it shouldn't
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: be held held hostage in the name of profit. John,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: I just I can't. I can't need more clear about that,
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: and we need to do something about this.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I mean this sincerely.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure what route I'm gonna take yet, but
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: I may be calling on you. I may be getting
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: some phone numbers to some elected officials who might be
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: able to help I, organization's body, whatever,