Guest Post From Tim Echols, Candidate For PSC

Rising Utility bills Should Heat You Up This Summer

By Tim Echols

The Georgia summer is hot, and not just because of the weather. That’s because two of Georgia’s largest utilities are fishing for rate increases from the Public Service Commission. Atlanta Gas Light recently submitted a $54 million rate request and the Georgia Power Company is asking for almost $1 billion, their largest increase in 20 years. This is on top of the SB 31 increase for the pre-construction charges for Plant Vogtle.

I strongly oppose SB 31, which all of my opponents support, because it violates a fundamental tradition here in Georgia. We have never allowed utilities to pre-charge for construction projects. Many may remember the 90 or so lobbyists that Georgia Power brought to the capitol to convince my two legislative opponents and others to vote for this bill. This is something that Georgia Power’s parent company, the Southern Company, should ask shareholders to pay for, not ratepayers here in Georgia. I see it as a form of corporate welfare of sorts.

That brings me to another nagging concern: our nation’s dependence on foreign oil. We are beholden to countries in the Middle East and South America while we have the equivalent of 350 billion barrels of oil in natural gas reserves sitting under the state of Texas. This natural gas burns cleaner, is about 80 cents a gallon cheaper, and is an American resource. So what is stopping us from using it? In a word, “access.”

Access is severely limited because there is only a handful of fast fuel CNG (compressed natural gas) stations in Georgia. What we need is a network of refueling stations that can handle the demand that Georgia drivers require, and especially larger fleet vehicles. Converting one large truck over to CNG is like taking 325 cars off the road. But without convenient ways to fill up CNG vehicles, businesses and consumers are not going to want to buy or make the conversion. And who can blame them?

Congress can show some leadership too by passing the Natural Gas Act, giving tax credits to manufacturers for building these refueling stations. This act will help our municipal governments and larger companies invest in fleets that burn natural gas, so that they can add their voice to the development of refueling stations in publicly available locations. The more that large commercial fleets are encouraged to convert their fleet to burn natural gas for fuel, the cleaner our air will be, the less we will depend on foreign oil, and the public will benefit further by having access to public refueling stations in key areas around the state.

In addition, a good Public Service Commissioner needs to make sure to balance consumers expectations to keep rates low with the need for utilities to recover their operating costs under stable financial conditions. We should expect utilities to ride the “highs” of boom- time markets all the while putting money and resources away to fully serve their customers in a down market. That is their obligation as a regulated monopoly. Reasonable stability is the key to a utility’s long term success in meeting customer needs, and a watchful PSC will keep an eye on that stability.

Georgia is off to a good start with state income tax credits for solar water heaters, solar space heat, photo-voltaics, wind-generated power, and geothermal heat pumps. But we must do more. In my hometown of Athens, Power Partners Solar is manufacturing state-of-the-art solar hot water heating systems now being used all over the world. Sonny Perdue signed a bill giving Georgians tax credit for installing such a system in their homes. How many people know about it though? Georgia companies like this need recognition and their innovative products need to be championed by leaders around the state. Our elected officials can use their platform and bully pulpit to highlight innovation happening right under our noses. That is certainly what I plan to do if elected to the Public Service Commission.

Let’s get serious about alternative energy sources and make Georgia the epicenter for technology innovation.

Tim Echols is a candidate for the Public Service Commission. To find out more about Tim Echols, go to http://www.timechols.com