More than 200 demonstrators, some of them Occupy protestors, took to the steps of Pepco headquarters Thursday to fight plans for a rate hike.
Pepco officials say they need to make an additional $42.5 million dollars in order to continue to improve reliability and customer service.
The demonstrators say the company's CEO Joe Rigby makes more than $8 million dollars and should cut his salary in half and use the money for infrastructure improvements.
Pepco has been under fire before and recently received a dubious honor. It was rated "worst in the nation" by the American Satisfaction Index.
In a statement, Pepco says:
"To keep up with investments in reliability and advanced technologies and improvements in customer service, Pepco filed requests to increase electricity delivery rates. Pepco is in the midst of the largest reliability effort in our one hundred fifteen year history. We are investing approximately a half billion dollars over five years to improve reliability and our focus right now is achieving that goal for our customers."
Pepco officials will appear before the Washington Public Service Commission for an evidentiary hearing on January 30th. Protesters say they will be there as well making their feelings known.
