POSTED: 7:05 pm EDT October 5, 2009
UPDATED: 6:59 pm EDT October 6, 2009

AKRON, Ohio -- FirstEnergy Corp. plans to provide nearly 4 million low-energy light bulbs to its residential electricity customers in Ohio.

Akron-based FirstEnergy said Monday that distribution will begin in mid-October. Two compact fluorescent light bulbs will be mailed or hand-delivered to residential customers of Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. and Toledo Edison.

The cost of the program will be underwritten by customers, who FirstEnergy said can recover three times the cost through projected energy savings. Reports indicate that there will be a 60 cent charge on customers' bills for the next three years.

The program approved by state regulators is meant to reduce electricity usage and increase awareness of energy conservation.

The CFL bulbs use up to 75 percent less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs.

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Discuss: Light Bulb Giveaway
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dvrdown     10-07-2009, 9:19 AM         
Here is the reply I received from my complaint to First Energy, basically they don't care how people feel, they want their money:

Thank you for utilizing FirstEnergy's Customer Care website for your account needs. Ohio Edison/Toledo Edison/The Illuminating Company is focused on helping our customers lower their electric bills by reducing energy use and increasing the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses. CFLs are simple yet effective tools for saving energy. For example, replacing a single 100-watt incandescent bulb with a CFL of the same light output can reduce your electric bill by $10 a year. Thats $10 for every bulb you switch, so your savings can add up.

If a delivery person comes to your house when you are home, please simply ask them not to deliver the bulbs to your home, and they will move on. If you do receive bulbs either through the mail or at your door feel free to give them to a neighbor, friend or a family member. If you want to dispose of them, check if your municipality permits you to put CFLs in the garbage. If so, seal the bulb in two plastic bags and put it into the outside trash, or other protected outside location, for the next normal trash collection. If not, you will need to properly recycle the bulbs. CFL recycling is available free of charge at The Home Depot stores or your municipality might have other CFL recycling programs available.

This CFL program is part of a statewide effort under Ohios new energy law (Senate Bill 221) to reduce the amount of electricity customers use. As with most state-mandated programs that are designed to benefit all residential customers such as energy efficiency programs and environmental projects the costs incurred by the utilities to implement the program are included in residential customer rates. So all customers share the costs of the programs over a period of several years.

Sincerely,

Rachel Customer Service
_______________________________________
Customers will pay 60 cents per month for the next 3 years [36 months times $.60] which equals $21.60 for the two light bulbs.
They will also be paying taxes on that $.60 each month/bill so the cost will actually be higher than $21.60.

The program was approved by state regulators?
What the?