PPL's slap

This hasn't been an easy start to the new year and new decade.

Most of us are still feeling the effects of the recession.

For many, we're facing tax hikes, higher gas prices, and the general added expenses that come with annual inflation.

Far too many residents are without jobs, with many facing slim prospects of finding meaningful employment, despite what the current administration is telling us.

These are scary, and expensive times.

One of the most difficult areas that we have to cope with is in our electric bills. Thanks to deregulation, most of us are facing close to a 30 percent hike in our electric rates, which went into effect at the beginning of the year. Two recent snaps of frigid weather have accenuated that increase, as we are spending more to keep our homes and families warm during these winter months.

It's a bitter enough pill to swallow. But now, there has been added insult to injury.

PPl, our local electric supplier, is reportedly negotiating a deal to acquire the naming rights to the new Major League Soccer stadium that is being built near Chester, in Delaware County.

Here's the deal. PPL will pay $20 million for the rights to call that stadium "PPL Electric Field" or something to that effect.

Here's the way we see it, as we contemplate where we're going to find another 30 percent to pay this month's electric bill. We view it as a personal insult to each and every one of the 1.4 million customers in the 29 counties that PPL services.

We realize the PPL Energy Plus, an unregulated retail electric supplier that now faces stiff competition, needs name recognition. But who of us don't already know who and what PPL is? Do we have to read the name of our chief energy supplier on the front on a $120 million, 18.500 seat soccer stadium? No we don't. We already see their logo, every month, or our steadily growing electric bill.

The perception the message sends is that PPL doesn't care how it spends our added revenue.

''We see this as a very good marketing opportunity because it's a way to get our name out there in the Philadelphia area,'' PPL spokesman George Lewis told one publication. ''It certainly helps us get name recognition in the Philadelphia market and throughout the eastern part of the state."

We, the PPL customers, don't look at it as a golden opportunity. We look at it as a slap in the face. It's our hard-earned money that's going to help pay that $20 million for the naming rights to the stadium. Ninety nine percent of us will never set foot in that stadium, and don't care what goes on there. Nor do we care what it's called.

The bottom line is that this is money we can't afford, no matter how the company tries to spin it.

Bob Urban

rurban@tnonline.com