Letter to the editor

Dear editor,
Well, Ocmulgee EMC (OEMC) has done it again. If your electric bill didn’t double in January, then you must be on total gas. Even though many of us use gas or firewood for heat, the bill still doubled.
If the cost of gasoline doubled, we would all panic. Are you tired of being robbed? What can we do about this?
A couple of things come to mind. Class action law suits. Call the consumer protection bureau. Elect new government “representatives” to enact laws that provide for competition in the electricity market.
When you are ripped off, you tend to get angry. Any change in the weather is an excuse to rob you. Electricity in Georgia is produced by hydropower and nuclear power. Electricity is transmitted over wires – not by truck, as gasoline is.
Another thing: if it rains in Dodge County, the power goes out. Last time, it took days to get it back on. When we pay the kind of price that OEMC charges, should we not get top service?
If you need to call the OEMC office, all you get is bull; they know you have to have power, so they don’t care what you have to say. I think OEMC has too many rights and not enough responsibility.
The mere fact of it (OEMC) having “territory” stifles competition and puts you, the consumer, solely in their “power.” Why should you not be able to buy power from the provider with the lowest cost? Anything else that you buy works that way, but not electricity!
I have Georgia Power lines on my property, but I can only buy from OEMC. Does that make sense? That is called a monopoly. Should that not be illegal? Why not?
Also, whose “bright” idea was it to charge sales tax on electricity? I give you one guess.
Let’s all get together and find a solution to this fleecing that OEMC is giving us. Call your representative. Writing does no good.
Stan Evans