ORWIGSBURG - State Public Utility Commission Vice Chairman John F. Coleman Jr. wants Schuylkill County citizens to have more access to high-speed Internet service, saying Tuesday that it will help everyone in the area.
"Information is the new currency," Coleman, Port Matilda, told about 15 Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce members at the group's breakfast meeting at the Oak Hill Inn.
A former president and CEO of the Chamber of Business and Industry of Centre County, Coleman has been a PUC member since 2010 and became vice chairman of the five-member PUC in April.
He told chamber members that Schuylkill is one of six counties, the others being Butler, Carbon, Fayette, Mercer and Westmoreland, in which the PUC is making a special effort to have people sign up for high-speed Internet service. Those are the six counties that have the lowest rates in the state of people who have such service, according to Coleman.
"It's really an awareness campaign," Coleman said of how the PUC is trying to boost such service.
Coleman said people do not need a new computer in order to get high-speed Internet service, and they can go to the PUC's website in order to register for it.
People also can combine with their neighbors to file a Bona Fide Retail Request that can quicken installation of such service in an area where people can demonstrate a demand for it, Coleman said. Such an area does not need to be an entire county, or even municipality, but can be as small as a neighborhood if the demand is there, he said.
Coleman said the PUC is looking for people to share their stories of using high-speed Internet service by going to the commission's website and registering as an Internet All-Star.
"We're going to look at those success stories," and use one from each of the six counties to help promote the service, he said.
He said he does not know why Schuylkill is among the counties with the lowest percentages of high-speed Internet service.
Another program that Coleman sought to promote is choice in electricity suppliers, of which there are now more than 200 in the state.
He said that in the two years since the state deregulated the electric power industry, 1,760,845 Pennsylvanians have switched their suppliers, but that small businesses have the lowest switching rate. He encouraged local business leaders to seek the best prices for their energy, saying the PUC is increasing its efforts to help them do that.
Chamber Executive Director Robert S. Carl Jr. echoed Coleman's remarks.
"You need to be well-informed. Most businesses ... have limited time," Carl said. "The game has changed."
Coleman said that the PUC is trying to reduce the time, which can be as long as 45 days, it takes a consumer to switch power companies, and affirmed the PUC's belief that deregulation will help all Pennsylvanians by boosting competition and keeping prices low.
"(We're) looking at ways to improve the marketplace," he said.
Pennsylvania also should soon benefit from the Marcellus Shale impact fee that natural gas companies now pay to communities that are affected by the industry, according to Coleman. The PUC will be sending money from that fee soon, he said.
"We are ready to issue checks" that should go to the communities before the end of 2012, Coleman said.
Under new state laws, the PUC now has the power to enforce federal pipeline safety laws and keep a registry of pipeline operators, Coleman said.
The PUC also will be making its rate-making process more efficient and enable companies to be compensated more quickly for infrastructure improvements, Coleman said. Such improvements are needed across Pennsylvania in order to prevent more tragedies like the fatal explosions of old gas lines in Allentown and Philadelphia, he said.
"This ... is a huge improvement," mirroring the system that already is in place for water suppliers, he said. That system is working well, according to Coleman.
"There has not been one single complaint from customers," he said.