Cleveland Public Power (also known as
CPP) is a publicly owned
electricity generationElectricity generation is the process of creating electricity from other forms of energy.The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday...
and
distributionFile:Electricity grid simple- North America.svg|thumb|380px|right|Simplified diagram of AC electricity distribution from generation stations to consumersrect 2 243 235 438 Power stationrect 276 317 412 556 Transformer...
company in
OhioOhio is a Midwestern state of the United States. The thirty-fourth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the seventh-most populous with nearly 11.5 million residents...
. It was founded in 1907 by
Tom L. JohnsonTom Loftin Johnson was an American politician of the Democratic Party from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He headed relief efforts after the Johnstown, Pennsylvania floods of 1889, was a U.S. Representative from 1891–1895 and the 35th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio between 1901 and 1909...
, then Mayor of
Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
. Before 1983 it was known as
Municipal Light (or "
Muny Light" for short). CPP does not have sufficient capacity to compete across the entire
Greater ClevelandGreater Cleveland is a nickname for the metropolitan area surrounding Cleveland, Ohio.Northeast Ohio refers to a similar but substantially larger area as described below...
area. Rather, it is intended to create additional capacity and to create a benchmark price in order to prevent
price gougingPrice gouging is a term for a seller pricing much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. In precise, legal usage, it is the name of a felony that applies in some of the United States only during civil emergencies...
by local private utilities.
In December 1978, Mayor
Dennis KucinichDennis John Kucinich is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 elections....
refused to sell the company when a number of
bankA bank is a financial institution licensed by a government. Its primary activities include borrowing and lending money.Many other financial activities were allowed over time. For example banks are important players in financial markets and offer financial services such as investment funds...
s, which were heavily invested in Muny Light's privately owned competitor, the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (better known as CEI or The Illuminating Company) refused to roll over the city's debt, as had previously been customary.
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Cleveland Public Power (also known as
CPP) is a publicly owned
electricity generationElectricity generation is the process of creating electricity from other forms of energy.The fundamental principles of electricity generation were discovered during the 1820s and early 1830s by the British scientist Michael Faraday...
and
distributionFile:Electricity grid simple- North America.svg|thumb|380px|right|Simplified diagram of AC electricity distribution from generation stations to consumersrect 2 243 235 438 Power stationrect 276 317 412 556 Transformer...
company in
OhioOhio is a Midwestern state of the United States. The thirty-fourth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the seventh-most populous with nearly 11.5 million residents...
. It was founded in 1907 by
Tom L. JohnsonTom Loftin Johnson was an American politician of the Democratic Party from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He headed relief efforts after the Johnstown, Pennsylvania floods of 1889, was a U.S. Representative from 1891–1895 and the 35th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio between 1901 and 1909...
, then Mayor of
Cleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The municipality is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately 60 miles west of the Pennsylvania border...
. Before 1983 it was known as
Municipal Light (or "
Muny Light" for short). CPP does not have sufficient capacity to compete across the entire
Greater ClevelandGreater Cleveland is a nickname for the metropolitan area surrounding Cleveland, Ohio.Northeast Ohio refers to a similar but substantially larger area as described below...
area. Rather, it is intended to create additional capacity and to create a benchmark price in order to prevent
price gougingPrice gouging is a term for a seller pricing much higher than is considered reasonable or fair. In precise, legal usage, it is the name of a felony that applies in some of the United States only during civil emergencies...
by local private utilities.
In December 1978, Mayor
Dennis KucinichDennis John Kucinich is a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States in the 2004 and 2008 elections....
refused to sell the company when a number of
bankA bank is a financial institution licensed by a government. Its primary activities include borrowing and lending money.Many other financial activities were allowed over time. For example banks are important players in financial markets and offer financial services such as investment funds...
s, which were heavily invested in Muny Light's privately owned competitor, the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company (better known as CEI or The Illuminating Company) refused to roll over the city's debt, as had previously been customary. This was seen as a bad move at the time - unable to pay its debts, the city became the first since the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
to enter
defaultIn finance, default occurs when a debtor has not met his or her legal obligations according to the debt contract, e.g. has not made a scheduled payment, or has violated a loan covenant of the debt contract. A default is the failure to pay back a loan. Default may occur if the debtor is either...
- but Kucinich's decision was later vindicated by both city officials and the
U.S. SenateThe United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the lower house being the House of Representatives. The composition and powers of the Senate and the House are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution . Each U.S state is represented by two senators,...
, which found that CEI and the banks had acted improperly.
In December 2006, a new commissioner for CPP, Ivan Henderson took over the reins from the incumbent Jame Majer. Under the new commissioner's guidance CPP is poised to take over the streetlight maintenance from CEI.
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