BILL RICE AND MARK Jenkins’ report on the latest development in the never-ending Georgetown power plant case (Streetscape, 9/1) shows us how our two major dailies fail us. Quick to denounce, reluctant to retract—neither paper has yet to acknowledge the city’s countersuit against Dominion Energy and why the city is claiming fraud against Dominion.

Both papers came down hard on the District government for not backing the power plant and more so on the elected officials supportive of their constituents. As president of one of the opposing groups, the Glover Park Citizens Association, during the troublesome period of protracted hearings, it was a galling spectacle to witness the efforts to put down the residents of the District. The citizens of the city did not make idle charges of irregularities. They had documentation on their side. One group of opponents to the plant included local shareholders of Dominion Resources, the parent company of Dominion Energy. Knowing what they knew, they were stunned at Dominion’s hubris in asking them to lobby city officials for the sake of profit to Dominion and to the shareholders.

In view of the personnel cuts ordered by the financial control board, the board might also insist that henceforth the remaining workers devote more time to checking out the veracity of the technical and financial underpinnings of developers’ applications before routinely granting approvals based solely on the developers’ pres entations. There should be an end to arrogant lawsuits claiming the right to be paid for being rebuffed, especially when there are good reasons, as the District has shown in its countersuit. Fraud is not a frivolous charge.

Glover Park