State utility regulators in Baton Rouge decided to delay vote on a proposed energy-efficiency initiative again Wednesday. Scott Angelle, the newest commissioner on the panel, said he wanted to delay a vote on the program until August because he needed more time to craft language for the proposal. The proposed energy-efficiency initiative is designed to provide electric utilities and...
State utility regulators in Baton Rouge decided to delay vote on a proposed energy-efficiency initiative again Wednesday. Scott Angelle, the newest commissioner on the panel, said he wanted to delay a vote on the program until August because he needed more time to craft language for the proposal.
The proposed energy-efficiency initiative is designed to provide electric utilities and natural gas providers one year to develop programs that would offer hundreds of thousands of residential and business customers financial incentives for making improvements that lower their electricity use.
Angelle, who started on the Public Service Commission in January, said he is considering proposing a motion during next month's meeting to make the program optional. This would involve changing the language of the current proposal from "shall" to "may."
He asked representatives from the state's three major investor-owned power companies -- Entergy Louisiana, Pineville-based Cleco and SWEPCO, which services the Shreveport area -- during Wednesday's meeting whether they would be willing to support such a program. All three companies said they would need to study the language of the proposal first.
The program would not apply to Entergy New Orleans customers because the utility is regulated by the New Orleans City Council.
Angelle also said the state should set down clear rules for energy-efficiency programs in the state to ensure they protect business revenue and result in lower rates for consumers.
"The state has never promulgated...a set of rules that would provide to (utility companies) a high sense of confidence that if you were elected to opt into this area of resources planning that you would be entitled to a return," Angelle said during the meeting.
Since a motion was not made during the meeting, public comment was also not given. Representatives from energy-efficiency lobbying groups in the audience were not heard but will have an opportunity to speak next month.
Speaking after the meeting, the commissioners were split on changing the efficiency programs from mandatory to optional. Commissioner Clyde Holloway, who represents central and southwest Louisiana, said he would not support any energy-efficiency program of any kind.
"Unless I get a letter from God, I'm not voting for any energy-efficiency," Holloway said, adding although he is against the program.
Lambert Boissiere III, who represents the New Orleans area, said he would reserve comment on Angelle's proposal until he could see it. However, he added that energy-efficiency needed to be promoted more in the state.
"Louisiana has some of the lowest energy costs but the highest bills because we're inefficient," Boissiere said.
Foster Campbell, who was chairman of the five-member panel until Eric Skrmetta was voted in in January, said he was wholeheartedly against making the energy-efficiency program optional.
"I'm not for that," he said after the meeting. "I know what 'may' means. It means 'it may not happen.'"
Under the program's original design, Louisiana utilities had 10 months to let the state know their plans, along with estimates of potential savings and benefits to customers. The programs were slated to begin four months later.
The proposal was first floated last year, when Baton Rouge Republican Jimmy Field still sat on the commission. With Field, Foster and Boissiere, the statewide program was easily passed. But the vote was overturned and the program halted in February when Angelle joined the board.
Energy-efficiency advocates protested the turn-around, bringing suit against the commission because public comment was not allowed at the meeting. The commission then back-tracked, saying they would reconsider the issue at later meetings.
They restored the program in June but put off the vote until this month's meeting. Wednesday's repeat delay in the vote means the issue will not be taken up until the Aug. 21 meeting.