Met-Ed what a rip off Company!!

I called Met-Ed a month ago to set up electric (transfer out of landlord's name and into mine).  They wanted a security deposit of $264.00 OR a cosigner who had lived in my area with an account in good standing for at least 3-5 years.  Really?  It gets better...They mailed me out a cosigner (they call it a 'guarantor') statement to sign and send back.The security deposit has nothing to do with credit.  The security deposit is based on past electricity usage at your address, it is 2 1/2 times the normal bill.  It must be paid in full, but we will refund it if you re-send the guarantor statement" So I hung up, mulled it over, and called back and talked to another person because I really didn't believe you could hit someone with a security deposit based on the address you're moving to.  WRONG.  She verified the security deposit is based upon the address I have moved to, but assured me it had nothing to do with whether or not the previous tenant was delinquent on their bills or not.  I asked her HOW they could come up with a security deposit based upon previous electricity usage if I had JUST MOVED IN.  She said it was based on the history of usage at that address, not my personal usage.  WHAT???????  I asked her so if the people who lived here before used $500 worth of electricity per month, I would have to pay them $1250 just to have electric in my name??  (Yup).  Just because I moved there?
My credit's a 670, not bad, but certainly not 'excellent excellent'.  But apparently the credit is BESIDES the point and now you just have to pay the electric company a security deposit just because of the address you choose to move to.  By the way, I moved to a normal house on a normal street in an incredibly small town.  Is this housing profiling lol?  REALLY????  Is this legal????