Bill Would Smooth Energy Deregulation

Washington residents bewildered by their experience with telephone deregulation might be spared a repeat if an “Electricity Consumers Protection Act” introduced in the Legislature last week is enacted.

The bill would help preserve the low cost and high reliability of power in Washington as the nation moves toward loosening the bonds on one of the last regulated industries, said Spokane Sen. Lisa Brown, D-3rd, one of 14 sponsors. She cited studies that project rate increases of as much as 25 percent.

“As deregulation unfolds in other industries, like telecommunications, we’re seeing that mistakes were made that are hurting consumers,” Brown said. “We don’t want those mistakes to happen again.”

Her bill, S.B. 6560, would require traditional utilities as well as newcomers to the electricity market to make extensive disclosures of rates, credit policies, and dispute resolution procedures.

Also, when marketing power, utilities would have to identify the types of resources used to generate the power, and the air emissions they produce, if any.

Telemarketing of power would be permitted only between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., and any supply agreements would have to be in writing.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission would have to prepare a report on the plans adopted by the utilities by Dec. 1, when procedures should be in place.

But Rep. Larry Crouse, who chairs the committee that would hear the House version of Brown’s bill, said he has told the House sponsor he will not schedule a hearing on the measure, which could kill it.

Crouse, who has consistently taken a go-slow approach to deregulation, said legislative action this year will likely be limited to a bill that would require utilities to break out the cost of each of their services - generation, transmission and others - to begin educating consumers on how power is priced.

Chances for Brown’s bill could be better in the Senate, where a similar measure has been circulated by the chairman of the committee that would hear deregulation legislation.

An official with the Washington Water Power Co., which had sought passage of a broader deregulation bill, said the Spokane utility supported the Brown measure.

“Consumer protection is going to be a very key issue in any deregulation debate,” said Tom Paine, the utility’s director of government affairs.

, DataTimes