We were disappointed that Pepco officials continue to try and lay blame for poor service on trees. Certainly, tree limbs falling on power lines account for some of the outages. However, we wish to point out The Washington Post analysis published Dec. 5, 2010, noting that equipment failures, not trees, caused the most sustained power interruptions in 2010.

This is based on data from Pepco's internal records identifying equipment failures as the primary cause of power outages. This also accounts for the fact that many of the utility's most dramatic failures occur on days when there is no violent weather.

A local certified arborist in private practice tells us that he spends at least 50 percent of his time now trying to convince residential customers not to have healthy and beautiful canopy trees taken down because of Pepco's active campaign of trying to encourage private property owners to remove these trees.

A public entity that is instilling fear in residents to protect its bottom line is questionable at best. Pepco's campaign must be discontinued, and it must accept full responsibility for issues with reliable service.

Trees provide many services to the environment and to our economy. Mature canopy trees reduce energy consumption, manage polluted stormwater runoff, increase property values and provide healthy, habitable places for residents. Pepco should be trying to find ways to coexist with this environmental asset, not destroy it due to its own financial self-interest, which is decidedly not in the best public interest for which it serves.

Caren Madsen and Mark Buscaino, Silver Spring