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‘Suggest solutions to fix crisis’
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Posted on Feb 07 2005
The Commonwealth Utilities Corp. is expecting Gov. Juan N. Babauta to recommend solutions to CUC’s financial crisis, following his decision to junk a proposal to assess all utility customers a fuel surcharge.
CUC chair Frank Guerrero, who seemed surprised when told about the governor’s decision, said the operations committee of the CUC board of directors was scheduled to meet with Babauta this morning.
He said Babauta is expected to explain his position on the proposed fuel surcharge at the meeting. CUC had yet to be informed of the governor’s plans on the fee, Guerrero said in an interview late yesterday afternoon.
“We’re trying to meet with him to discuss the fuel surcharge. But what can I do if the governor has decided to disapprove it? I guess we just have to look and come up with another way to generate revenue,” Guerrero said. “Anyway, I’m sure the governor has some suggestions. He won’t just tell us that he did not approve of the fuel surcharge and not recommended a next step we can take.”
Guerrero also reiterated that load shedding may be the only option left for CUC. The utility firm cannot increase rates at this time, he said. Neither can it implement any more cost-cutting measures because “we’re down to the bare bones already,” he said.
“We’ll see how much fuel we have left and how we can conserve our remaining supply. One way is to do load shedding. We have to talk to the governor about this. Maybe we can also find funds to bail us out,” he said.
