The Scorpion
There is an old parable I learned as a kid:
A scorpion was wandering along the bank of the river, wondering how to get to the other side. Suddenly he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river.
The fox said, “No. If I do that, you’ll sting me and I’ll drown.”
The scorpion assured him, “If I did that, we’d both drown.”
So the fox thought about it and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back and the fox began to swim. But halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him.
As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, “Why did you do that? Now you’ll drown too.”
“I couldn’t help it,” said the scorpion. “It’s my nature.”
I can’t help but think about that parable when I read today that Delmarva is going to the aid of Bluewater Wind.
Bluewater lost its financial backing when its Australian parent company, Babcock and Brown, was ravaged by debt and the global economic meltdown.
The wind farm developer missed a critical deadline this summer to provide a letter of credit to Delmarva, which has a 25-year contract with Bluewater to buy power from turbines off the coast of Rehoboth Beach. When Bluewater asked for an extension, Delmarva “kindly granted” it, said Delmarva spokeswoman Bridget Shelton.
“We want to work with Bluewater Wind to bring this contract to fruition, and so that’s where we’re at,” said Shelton. She said the Bluewater deal would be good for Delmarva’s customers, and help the utility meet its state-mandated requirements to buy clean energy.
Hmmmmm….. what is Delmarva up to? Time to light the bat signal for Tommywonk.
I just had a ‘to-do’ with Delmarva regarding electric meter readings. I was turning the power on in a house recently, since frost and freezing is approaching. They informed me that “someone unknown” had “illegally” used power in the house, and I would be surcharged a rather significant amount. I invited the Public Service Commission into the debate between Delmarva and me. All of a sudden, the “illegal” usage turned into an understandable mistake in reading the meter on their part and all the surcharge disappeared.
Maybe I won, but they still have an odor of festering rot.
I’m on it:
http://www.tommywonk.com/2009/11/well-someday-is-here.html
They informed me that “someone unknown” had “illegally” used power in the house, and I would be surcharged a rather significant amount.
If there were people illegally using power at your house, why would they just charge you for it rather than, you know, calling the police on whoever is stealing the power? That’s crazy.
They claimed that the “theif” was “unknown”, and unless I could prove in court who the thief was, I was stuck with the bill. There were other circumstances which also caused their story to fall apart, and I capitalized on this in my communication to PSC. However, what pisses me off is that I have a pretty extensive background in handling problems like this; the other people they pulled this shit on probably just paid so their power could be turned on.
That’s why they do it, Dave. I do think there is a conspiracy for companies to get rich off of having us pay fees and making their customer service so bad that you don’t bother fighting it.