Washington AG Allegedly Prevented the Energy Company from Telling Customers Why Rates Increased
The Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) approved an energy company’s request to raise its rates for natural gas after the state implemented a cap-and-trade policy under the Climate Commitment Act, costing the company more than $16 million in profit loss.
After their request was approved, Puget Sound Energy (PSE) was told to not include itemizations on customer bills explaining the rate increase. The itemization would have would have read, “State Carbon Reduction Charge.” According to a report by Center Square, the “recommendation” to not include this information on customer bills came directly from the state’s Attorney General’s office.
“PSE told the UTC it needed a 3.25% increase in overall bills for all natural gas customers to generate $16.8 million required to cover their losses, which would be done under a State Carbon Reduction Charge,” the Center Square report explains. PSE’s request stated, that the 3.25% increase would cover “costs of allowances PSE needs to comply with the Cap and Invest Program.”
Nina Suetake, Washington State’s Assistant Attorney General, wrote to UTC to express her concern “with PSE’s proposal to itemize the State Carbon Reduction Charge and State Carbon Reduction Credit on customer bills.” She added, “If all program specific charges were included as line items, customer bills would quickly become incomprehensible. We believe the issue of whether to itemize these charges and credits on bills requires more discussion in upcoming workshops to ensure that the itemization would add to customer understanding and experience, rather than unnecessarily complicate utility bills.”
UTC, comprised of just a three-person board, voted in favor of the Assistant Attorney General’s recommendation. The board concluded that PSE “should not include the proposed ‘carbon reduction charge’ as a line item on customer bills,” because “including all program charges on customer bills would quickly result in lengthy and confusing bills.”
The effect of UTC’s decision is a rate increase customers due to carbon emissions standards that the company is required to abide by and PSE is now incapable of providing customers with an explanation for the increased prices on their bills.
Todd Myers, the Washington Policy Center Environmental Director, released a statement condemning the board’s decision, calling it, “one of the most brazenly dishonest decisions [he has] ever seen.”
The vote “directly contradicts the claims of Governor Inslee, staff at the Department of Ecology, and legislators who claimed the impact would be small or, absurdly, might even cause prices to go down,” Myers wrote. “What reason did they cite for hiding their decision from customers whose bills have increased? They say it would be confusing.”
In his statement, Myers quoted Washington state law RCW 42.56.030 which highlights key problems with UTC’s decision — “The people of this state do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies that serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know.”
