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Utilities: Private Profit or Public Good?
Thursday May 22, 7PM @ 2640 (2640 St. Paul St.)
More and more people across the Americas are facing huge increases in the cost of utilities-electricity, gas, oil, water-often forcing them into the painful choices of poverty: Should I pay for food, or heat, or the kids' ne shoes, or the light bill?
At the same time, more utilities in the Americas are moving from public to private control, passing along large profits to their shareholders. Should utilities be private, or are they a public good? How can ordinary people have a say in how these life necessities are provided, and at what cost? Our speakers will address these questions, as they talk about utility consumer movements in Maryland and Nicaragua-examples of activities across the Americas which are working to improve the lives of us all.
Light Refreshments will be served. Sponsored by Casa Baltimore/Limay, a friendship-city project linking the peoples of Maryland and San Juan de Limay, Nicaragua. For more information, call 410-662-6292.
Maria Allwine is a local peace and justice activist with the MD Coalition against the BGE Rate Hikes, the Pledge of Resistance Baltimore, and Maryland Universal Healthcare Action Network. She will speak about the work of the BGE Coalition, why deregulation happened in 1999, and why nothing has been done in the General Assembly to reverse it. She will also talk about the specifics of deregulation, how many other states are moving to re-regulation, and what deregulation means for BG&E's residential ratepayers.
Tom Loudon has worked with the Quixote Center in Washington, DC, for 3 years. He lived in Central America, including Nicaragua, for 15 of the last 20 years. From 2000 to 2004 Tom was Central American Regional Representative for American Friends Service Committee. He has worked with Ruth Herrera of the Nicaragua Consumers' Union and will fill us in on what has happened with the demands that organization made; the fights in Nicaragua against privatization; and the current state of affairs with Sandinistas in the government around the issues of water, electricity, and other consumer rights.
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