An End Run Around the PSC (Editorial)

Entergy's corporate headquarters in New Orleans (Shutterstock)

A plan to let electric and gas utilities make capital investments without review by the Arkansas Public Service Commission should alarm not only residential consumers but commercial and industrial customers as well.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported on the move earlier this month. “The proposed legislation would dodge regulatory restraints, deliver multiple economic benefits to electric and gas utilities and could leave customers unprotected from costs the companies want to recover to fund broadly defined ‘strategic investments’ deemed necessary to enhance economic growth in Arkansas,” the article said.

Utility executives, like Entergy CEO Laura Landreaux, say the legislation, described as “regulatory reform,” would let them move more quickly to win big job-creating projects.

But a review by the PSC staff “found no cases where regulatory delays hindered job creation or economic growth.” And a lawyer for the Arkansas Electric Energy Consumers, a group of large industrial customers, said the group was worried about the legislation’s potential to raise rates. “We have members that say Entergy has told them they expect rates to go up as much as 25%,” lawyer Kelly McQueen told the paper.

Favorable electricity rates helped Arkansas lure the job-creating steel industry to Mississippi County. We’re not convinced this “reform” is needed.