Pepco was pranked Thursday by an environmental group that sent out e-mails and letter to customers saying the electric utility was going to cancel a planned rate increase and start getting its electricity from only renewable energy sources.
Greenwash Guerillas, the same group that claimed responsibility for throwing a pie at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, said they were behind for the April Fool’s Day hoax on the local electric utility.
Pepco sent out a media release Thursday advising customers of the prank. The company said it is not canceling any rate increase, which is set to raise the average residential customer’s energy bill by $1.30 to $2.30 a month in June.
Greenwash Guerillas distributed thousands of fliers to Pepco customers and sent out a fake news release Thursday morning. It also set up a Web site that looked almost identical to Pepco’s. The flier mirrored Pepco’s stationery and had a fake signature from Chief Executive Officer Joe Rigby.
In the prank communications, the company said it making a pledge to provide all of its electricity from wind and solar power by 2020 because of the harmful environmental effects of coal strip mining.
“We hope that Pepco actually takes this joke seriously,” said Greenwash Guerillas spokeswoman Lacy MacAuley. “Today it’s a prank announcing it for them, and we hope that down the road they will be announcing it for real.”
