Jackson Free Press

Last week, the Mississippi Senate shut down talks with House conferees over the funding of the Mississippi Public Service Commission. Republican Sen. Merle Flowers, seemingly following the orders of Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant and Gov. Haley Barbour, pulled out of a prior House/Senate agreement to fully fund the commission. Anti-regulation senators don't want the PSC to have 11 new employees that commissioners requested of the Legislature during the regular session.

The new employees would exist exclusively to verify information and reports that power companies submit to the commission, but Senate allies of the power companies argue that utility companies don't need any more supervision.

They first argued that the employees cost money, and that the state can't afford additional expenses during the economic downturn. However, power companies—not taxpayers—finance the employees through user fees. State money isn't even involved. Then, the argument morphed into complaints that power companies would raise rates in response to the new user fees. Again, an exaggeration, according to commissioners, who estimated rates would rise an average of seven cents per month to fund the new positions. At one point, the House and Senate had even negotiated the 11 new employees down to three employees, potentially reducing the rate increase to less than 3 cents.

Now the argument from utility company allies is that the new staff members represent a wasteful duplication of services already provided by the Public Utilities Staff, the agency actually charged with checking utility company numbers. But PUS has done a half-assed job of checking power company numbers over the last 20 years, according to PSC commissioners.

Commissioners rejected a recent fuel-adjustment audit submitted by Entergy Mississippi, which claimed that the power company had bought the most affordable power available and passed those savings onto consumers. At the time, though, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood alleged that Entergy Mississippi had done nothing of the sort. Commissioners said PUS did not even call around to check if cheaper power had been available before rubber-stamping the report and sending it on to the commission to endorse. What's more, PUS Executive Director Bobby Waites said his agency had fulfilled its statutory requirement, saying that the burden upon the agency's shoulders obviously falls short of policing power companies.

It's time to face facts: This fight is all about letting power companies—who have more than 20 lobbyists working the House and Senate during some legislative sessions—stampede the needs of ratepayers.

The Mississippi Legislature needs to stand aside and allow government to do its regulatory job.

Previous Comments

ID

149511

Comment

Let me preface this post by stating that Utilities need to be effectively regulated and that does not appear to be happening. However, giving the Public Services Commission its own legal staff to go behind what the Public Utilities Staff was supposed to have done doesn't seem like the solution either. The purpose of the PUS is not to advocate for consumers, at least the way I understand it. Its purpose is to attempt to provide an unbiased review of the materials submitted by utilities. The problem seems to be that the Governor appoints the head of the PUS. If you have a Governor who is opposed to regulation, then you will have a PUS that doesn't do its job. Instead of giving the PSC its own legal and analysis staff, which will be subject to the Commissioner's political whims, why not allow the the legislature to appoint the PUS head. At least that way the PUS head won't be able to please everyone and might just try to see that the PUS does its job.

Author

pigbodine

Date

2009-07-10T13:09:17-06:00