Letters | Tanner gets better marks than PSE in outages

Published 4:57 pm Monday, January 23, 2012

We need a new utility around here. Where else in the country do 300,000 customers regularly lose power and heat during a typical weather event?

Here, it happens every few years and is considered business as usual by Puget Sound Energy. We need a utility that performs regular, routine and preventative tree maintenance, to trim and cull potentially harmful branches and limbs to avoid catastrophe. PSE rakes in its profits, waits for a catastrophe, herds in a few extra workers, and expects to be seen as a hero when power and heat finally return to its beleaguered customers.

Undoubtedly, PSE will whine to the legislature for a rate hike due to its “extraordinary” efforts during the storm, and also, ironically, to pay for the ensuing lack of gas and electricity usage by its customers during this time.

Our local co-op, Tanner Electric, as usual, worked most efficiently and admirably.  We can always count on it.  When we phoned in for updates, we spoke to a human being.  PSE could learn a great deal from Tanner’s model.

Kathy Swoyer

North Bend