Jackson Free Press

Consumer advocates criticized Entergy for not investing in energy conservation this week during a series of Public Service Commission meetings.

The Public Service Commission is holding meetings in response to the power company raising customer rates by nearly 30 percent to offset claims of rising natural gas prices. The PSC is also discussing Entergy's desire to add another nuclear reactor to the Grand Gulf facility in Port Gibson. PSC members will hear testimony from Entergy officials and industry experts on how the company can adopt longer-term planning to offset a 30 percent hike in the future.

Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who was elected last November, said that the commission had been too trusting of energy companies in the past.

"We've got to scrutinize this process a little more," Presley said in July. "Rate payers expect us to be as cynical as possible and that we should question everything. We're not paid to trust. We're paid to verify, and we've got to make sure we are not just taking things on face value."

AARP consultant Barbara Alexander said she was glad the PSC was taking an active role in policing the industry and accused Entergy of forsaking long-term planning without PSC oversight.

"Preliminary research is showing us that (Entergy) is not doing long-term integrated planning that takes into account all the ... options to keep our costs as low as possible," Alexander said.

AARP contends that state retirees, many of whom live on fixed incomes, cannot afford the recent rate hikes, and likely will not be able to swallow another rate hike to finance the construction of the new Port Gibson reactor.

Alexander argued that the company could save its customers more money, and possibly stave off the necessity of the new reactor, by keeping their current plants modernized and efficient.

Energy industry consultant Carl Pechman said energy companies in other states routinely engage in community conservation awareness. They also regularly finance programs to help customers modernize household appliances and air-conditioning units, as well as invest in renewable energy technology. But Entergy seemed to have an aversion to either of those ideas, he said.

Entergy Communications Manager Checky Harrington said his company frequently offered incentives and advice to its low-income customers on how to be more efficient, but said the state's energy needs trumped its priority on conservation.

"While conservation is important, we still need to look at the future energy needs of customers, and right now Mississippians have about 500 megawatts less power than we need here in the state. Part of this long-range plan is the (nuclear plant)," Harrington said, adding that the company had no idea how much of a rate increase the new plant would cost customers.

Harrington said Entergy "continuously" upgrades its plants, but added that the plants are still getting old. "We've been fixing the old car for some time, and we'll continue to do that, but we do know that there's much more efficient technology available," Harrington said.

Mississippi Sierra Club Director Louie Miller denied the company's willingness to upgrade its plants and said the company was too busy trying to raise the price of its own stock to invest in plant modernization.

"They're putting more money into stock buybacks—$4 billion of their investment into stock buybacks. That does not serve the consumer in any form or style," Miller said.

Harrington admitted that Entergy is investing in stock buybacks, as indicated in a July 16 Jackson Free Press article citing the company's 2007 10k, but said the buybacks were not central to the PSC meetings.

"That's really not the issue we're discussing. We're looking at our power needs. Stock buybacks are not really what relates to Mississippi," Harrington said. "We do engage in stock buybacks, but that's not what's on the table today."

Looking to spar, Miller snapped to reporters that the company had been working hard during legislative sessions to kill tax credits for Entergy customers for modernizing appliances in the Mississippi Legislature, despite Harrington's claims of offering incentives and advice to low-income customers.

"We've not seen an investment required for low-income people. Entergy spent the last two years in the Mississippi Legislature killing the tax credit, so what they say here and what they do are not one in the same," Miller said.

Harrington would not respond when asked to either confirm or deny Entergy's work in killing the tax credits.

Previous Comments

ID

133174

Comment

I thought Entergy just hiked them because of fears of the price of Natural Gas going up. When it didn't happen, they had to reduce them. Or something like that.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2008-08-18T14:46:44-06:00