Latest news with #utilityregulation
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Georgia Public Service Commission election: What you need to know
The Brief It's Election Day for the primary races to see who will face off for a seat on the Georgia Public Service Commission. The agency is the body elected statewide that regulates utilities such as gas and electricity. It has power over what Georgia Power, the state's largest electric provider, can charge customers for electricity. There are two separate primary elections taking place. A voter can choose either a Republican ballot or a Democratic ballot. In each race, candidates must live in a certain district, but run statewide. Voters across Georgia will head to the polls on Tuesday tohave their say on who can make decisions over what they see on their utility bills. Primary elections for two of the five seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission are up for grabs. It's the first race in five years due to a lawsuit over how Georgia's districts were drawn. What we know The Georgia Public Service Commission is the body elected statewide that regulates utilities such as gas and electricity. It has power over what Georgia Power, the state's largest electric provider, can charge customers for electricity. Seven candidates are running for two seats on the commission. The eighth, Daniel Blackman, was disqualified after a judge ruled he hadn't moved into the district in time to meet the November 2024 deadline. In recent years, the Commission approved multiple hikes to utility prices. In May, Georgia Power cut a deal with the commission's Public Interest Advocacy staff to freeze its base rate until 2028. As part of the tentative agreement, the utility will also push back its request to recoup storm damage losses until 2026. That deal must still be approved by the PSC after public hearings this month. The five-member commission, currently all Republicans, also oversees some natural gas rates for Atlanta Gas Light and Liberty Gas. Dig deeper There are two separate primary elections taking place. A voter can choose either a Republican ballot or a Democratic ballot. In each race, candidates must live in a certain district, but run statewide. In the District 2 Republican primary, Lee Muns of Harlem is challenging incumbent Commissioner Tim Echols, who lives in Hoschton. Echols has been on the Public Service Commission since 2011. The winner will face Democrat Alicia Johnson of Augusta in November. In the District 3 Democratic primary, three people are vying to challenge Republican incumbent Fitz Johnson in November. They are Peter Hubbard and Keisha Waites of Atlanta and Robert Jones of Brookhaven. If no Democrat wins a majority on Tuesday, a runoff will be held on July 15. Georgia usually doesn't have statewide elections in odd-numbered years, but these were pushed back after elections were delayed by a lawsuit that unsuccessfully challenged the statewide voting scheme as discriminatory to Black people. No Georgia Public Service Commission elections have been held since 2022 because of the lawsuit. Johnson was appointed to the commission in 2021 by Gov. Brian Kemp and has never faced voters. He was supposed to run for the last two years of his predecessor's term in 2022. Instead, the District 3 winner can run again next year for a six-year term, after lawmakers rewrote the terms. Echols was supposed to run for a six-year term in 2022. Instead, the District 2 winner will serve for five years, with the next election in 2030. What you can do Eligible voters can cast their ballot at their assigned polling place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Those in line by 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote. Some Gwinnett County polling places have been changed. You can find the list of changes here. You can find your assigned polling place on the Georgia Secretary of State's My Voter Page. The Source Information for this report came from previous FOX 5 stories and the Associated Press.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bipartisan bill would require greater oversight for utility resellers
State Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma, describing legislation to regulate submetering companies. (Photo by Nick Evans, Ohio Capital Journal.) Many Ohioans living in multi-unit developments get their utility services through their landlord rather than a power or gas company. A bipartisan pair of state lawmakers argue that arrangement leaves consumers unprotected and opens the door to higher rates or unnecessary fees. They want to see those submetering companies regulated like utilities. 'If you act like a utility, and you look like a utility, and you smell like a utility, and you sound like a utility — you're a utility,' said state Rep. Sean Brennan, D-Parma. 'And you should therefore, have the same PUCO oversight as any other utility in the state of Ohio.' For large developments like apartment buildings, condominiums and manufactured home parks, setting up a different meter for every unit can be cumbersome. Instead, third party companies offer to set up a single meter for the entire complex and then purchase utilities wholesale. The company then resells the services to residents and bills them directly. The problem, argued state Rep. Tex Fischer, R-Boardman, is submetered residents don't get the benefit of shopping around for their utility provider and the company they're forced to purchase from isn't regulated. 'At my core, I'm a free market conservative,' Fischer said. 'What I do not believe in is businesses who are selling the same product to customers while playing by a completely different set of rules.' He argued if the Ohio has built its energy market to provide lower rates through competition, it doesn't make sense to allow companies to carve out little monopolies for themselves. 'Submetering may appear to be a simple pass-through of utility costs,' Brennan added, 'but in practice, these companies operate in a legal gray area.' Most glaring — there's no entity determining whether utility rates passed on to consumers are fair. But the sponsors said residents miss out on benefits like low-income energy assistance programs or dispute resolution before state regulators. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Brennan noted lawmakers just approved House Bill 15, which included several provisions strengthening consumer protections — like requiring utilities to justify their rates before state regulators on a regular basis. He argued those utilities are 'subject to consumer protection laws, disconnection procedures, billing transparency requirements and complaint resolution mechanisms.' 'But submetering companies are not bound by any of these same obligations, even though the service they provide is identical from the customer's point of view,' Brennan said. Ohio utility regulators' decision disenfranchised apartment renters, consumer advocate says Brennan and Fischer's proposal has the backing of Ohio Consumers' Counsel Maureen Willis. Her office represents consumers in proceedings before the PUCO. She pointed to residents' lack of choice and lack of protections, saying it's 'not fair and it's not transparent.' 'This bill closes that loophole,' Willis said. 'It restores the basic principle that no one should profit off reselling essential services without public accountability.' In addition to Brennan and Fischer's proposal, a different measure would explicitly exempt submetering companies from utility regulation, while prohibiting them from jacking up rates. Under that proposal, sponsored by state Rep. David Thomas, R-Jefferson, and state Sen. Andrew Brenner, R-Delaware, submetering companies could charge no more than the standard consumer rate charged by the local utility. Nationwide Energy Partners, which provides submetered services in Central Ohio, favors that approach. In a dispute between the company and AEP Ohio, the PUCO sided with NEP. Their decision required AEP to add provisions to its term sheet (known as a tariff) to allow NEP to continue providing service and put residents on similar footing with people who are not submetered. 'NEP has been supportive of consumer protections and specifically supports the consumer protections the PUCO put into tariffs,' an NEP spokesperson said. 'We believe that's the correct approach for legislation. Putting those tariff requirements into statute would give the PUCO clear authority over submetering and embed the current PUCO requirements for bill cap and disconnect into law.' But while submetering companies argue they're operating fairly, Fischer said he has 'no way of proving their claims one way or another.' That's the whole point of a public regulatory process, he said. 'If, in fact, these submeter companies are doing as they say,' Fischer argued, 'then they should have no problems continuing under Public Utilities Commission oversight.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
