16 Oct 2007

American Samoan Senate calls on power authority to lower electricity rates

7:48 am on 16 October 2007

The American Samoan Senate is again calling on the American Samoa Power Authority, or ASPA, to lower electricity rates.

The Senate has likened ASPA's continued refusal to reduce rates as indifference to the plight of the destitute and impoverished local residents.

In a letter to the ASPA chairman Fepuleai Afa Ripley Jr., the Senate President Lolo Moliga summarised the board's actions as uncaring inefficient and controversial.

Lolo says ASPA board's claim that high fuel costs are to blame for high electricity rates is nonsense.

He says the people of American Samoa are being victimised by the inconvenience of increased power outages, but also the escalating cost of electricity.