Posted on 03/10/2023 9:34:00 AM PST by george76
Legislative select committee opens inquiry into high energy bills..
Colorado’s high energy costs are partly due to a high-stakes regulatory "game" being played largely outside of the public’s view, said the official advocating for customers before the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.
A joint committee hearing on high energy costs at the statehouse Wednesday provided insights into the regulatory process that determines how much money investor-owned utilities make and how much utility consumers have to pay.
“I would say if a rate payer is deciding between paying their heating bill or paying their prescriptions this month, then yes, something is wrong,” said Senate President Steve Fenberg D-Boulder, who chaired the hearing. “Something clearly needs to change. Perhaps we need to make some amendments to that compact that was agreed to more than a hundred years ago.”
Joseph Pereira, deputy director of the Utility Consumer Advocate office explained to legislators, from the perspective of energy consumers, how the regulatory compact between monopoly utility providers and the state can affect consumer’s bills.
“The regulatory compact can be thought of as evolving,” said Pereira in the hearing. “And so decarbonization becomes, if that's what the legislature puts forward, part of the compact for service. This is no longer optional. This is part of the law, and this is part of the public interest.”
The objectives of Colorado lawmakers towards public utilities have grown beyond making sure that consumers get reliable, safe service at a reasonable price. In recent years the General Assembly has added other values that must be considered, like equity and environmental concerns, to the duties of regulators.
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A utility will come to the PUC and ask for a percentage of return on equity, which means a guaranteed profit on the utility’s capital expenses for building new energy sources and infrastructure, Pereira said.
For example, the recent approval Xcel Energy received to build 650 miles of high-tension power lines in eastern and southeastern Colorado to serve distributed renewable energy sources and improve the power grid means the utility will earn a guaranteed profit on its $1.7 billion in capital investment, which will be collected from ratepayers over time.
“What this is part of, I think, is the regulatory game that's played — and where customers are at a disadvantage,” said Pereira.
Any activity beyond basic service is contrary to the financial interest of the utility, he said, therefore it needs to be incentivized. The evolving nature of the relationship between regulated utilities and the state is seen in the plethora of new environmentally oriented laws in the last few years and bills under consideration at the statehouse now.
It’s not all about fuel costs..
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Consumers are shut out of the process..
When ratepayers — stunned by doubling and even tripling of their energy bills this winter, and hammered by skyrocketing inflation — cry out for help, the PUC patiently listens. But the public comments don’t have much weight in the process, Pereira said.
“The outcry that you've heard recently is an influence, but it doesn't necessarily have standing in the regulatory process,” said Pereira. “They are something that the Public Utilities Commission sees, but it doesn't become part of the decision-making process unless those comments are put in the record. And so public opinion and concerns and perspective really sit outside the regulatory process unless it's let in.”
But the general public isn’t invited to play the regulatory "game." Those who are invited by the PUC to become intervenors can expect to pay $500,000 or more for a seat at the table. That’s what happened when the Coalition of Ratepayers was granted intervenor status in two of Xcel’s cases in 2016 and 2017.
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the utility brings a bunch of outside consultants, legal experts, et. cetera, spends many millions of dollars and then the ratepayers pay them back for making the argument to increase our rates
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Secrecy is baked in..
“First of all, you can't get the data unless you become an intervenor,” said Amy Cooke, CEO of the John Locke Foundation, a free market think tank in North Carolina in an interview with The Denver Gazette. “And by the way, you become an intervenor only if the Public Utilities Commission allows you to, otherwise you can't.”
The ones who cannot become intervenors, by law, are individual consumers and small businesses. It is the Utility Consumer Advocate office who represents them. But it, like every other party to the proceeding, signs a nondisclosure agreement that keeps much of the financial information needed to analyze the utility’s needs secret — forever. Utilities routinely submit financial and other data during the proceeding that it classifies as “highly confidential” that cannot be made public.
“Here's the thing. You don't get to see the data unless you're an intervenor and you're of a certain status,” said Cooke. “Then you get to see the data, but you have to sign a confidentiality agreement where you can't say anything. You can't show anyone what you're seeing. So, people have no idea.”
While many of the filings and exhibits submitted during the quasi-judicial PUC proceedings are available to the public on the PUC’s electronic filing system, it’s a system Cooke says is designed to keep anyone but experienced public utilities lawyers and experts from making sense of.
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The public is interested..
The whole point of a public utilities commission is to look after the public interest.
“The biggest risk to the public interest is that the vision and priorities that are taken on within the regulatory process are that of the utility and not of the public,” said Pereira. “The utility is the one who makes the filing. They determine what the issues that are going to be discussed are. And so, the danger for the public here is that this becomes a conversation about what does the utility need and not about how are we meeting our bigger public interest goals.”
“If we're going to continue to have for-profit companies provide public services, I think it does deserve the closest of scrutiny,” said Fenberg. “We've chosen this model a long time ago. Nobody is suggesting that we start over, but I think it's healthy to ask ourselves what we can do within this model to better look out for consumers and the public interest.”
Xcel Energy uses the green agenda (expensive, not reliable.. ) to make a crony fortune at rate payers expense.
Colorado Ping ( Let me know if you wish to be added or removed from the list.)
In Colorado, the price of electricity has tripled during peak use and gas has doubled ..... SINCE 2020.
Electricity was as low as 7 / 8 cents per KWH, now its 14 during off peak to 29 cents during peak hours.
During the 2017 legislative session, Xcel.. failed in the Colorado state Senate.. because it made zero economic sense to force Coloradans to pay to shut down our most affordable and dependable - paid for - power plants that run 24/7, in favor of unreliable wind turbines and solar panels that increase electricity costs while decreasing dependability.
After the session, Xcel changed its tune.. by going to then governor Hickenlooper and the Public Utilities Commission for something it could not get passed through the Legislature... as its Minnesota executives and Wall Street shareholders laugh their way to the bank. Kickbacks to .. ?.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3689070/posts
+379%!!!!! Up $7.00 !!!!!!!
Uh, branDUHn? NVenergy is bumping(?) their prices as well. Last year same month was $171. This year $282. Usage hasn’t changed.
You will have no energy and no food.
You will either starve or freeze to death and achieve Zer0 CO2 emissions to save da Erf.
Welcome to the great reset of the Green [Watermelon] New Deal.
Xcel wants higher electrical prices. Union bosses want more fees. Pigs at the trough. Rate payers and families lose.
Jared Schutz Polis’ goal of 100% renewable energy is to crush us with unreliable, interment, and expensive energy ... that does not work 24 - 7..
if you are living in the communist state of colorado there is a reason and you all voted for it.
Dominion machines voted in the commies
Patriots stay and fight.
I'm active in GOP politics and am a Bonus Member in tomorrow's State Central Committee Meeting.
You can't win if you're not in the fight.
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