GOP leader Stivers moves to remake Kentucky Public Service Commission

Yahoo

21-02-2025

Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, wants to enlarge the Public Service Commission and identify its members by political party. Stivers presides over the Senate, Feb. 20, 2025. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Liam Niemeyer).
FRANKFORT — A powerful commission overseeing the regulation and rates of Kentucky utilities would be expanded — and sitting members potentially removed — under a bill sponsored by the leader of the GOP-dominated Kentucky Senate.
Senate President Robert Stivers, R-Manchester, told the Lantern he filed Senate Bill 8 because the three-member Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) handles complex, technical issues amid rising electricity demand from data centers and that it is 'time for a discussion on what the Public Service Commission is doing and what they should do.'
'It is now with three people, very few to my knowledge having extensive background in the energy area,' Stivers said. 'I think this becomes, from a policy standpoint, a commission that does have a lot of responsibility.'
The bill would also put partisan requirements on the now nonpartisan PSC.
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He said the bill, which was filed on the last day possible in this year's session, would advance through the legislature in the coming weeks.
The PSC regulates the rates and services of more than 1,100 utilities, ranging from large investor-owned electricity providers like Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities to small water districts that provide drinking water to rural communities. The regulator also fields complaints from Kentuckians about service and rates and hears requests from utilities to retire or build new power generation.
The commission is made up of three members appointed by the governor and confirmed to their positions by the Kentucky Senate. The requirements in state law to be a commissioner include being at least 25 years old and a Kentucky resident for at least three years. The governor also has the power to designate a chair and vice-chair on the commission.
SB 8 would expand the makeup of the PSC by adding two members to the commission for a total of five commissioners. The two new members would be appointed by the auditor of public accounts, currently Republican Allison Ball, and confirmed by the Senate. SB 8 would give the power to designate a commission chair and vice chair through a vote among commission members.
The bill also adds additional experience requirements and states that current commissioners — all of whom were appointed by Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and confirmed by the Senate — would have their four-year terms as commissioners 'terminated' if they don't meet the experience requirements set out in Stivers' bill. Beshear would then appoint new commissioners to replace vacated seats under the bill.
Crystal Staley, a spokesperson for Beshear, described the move as 'partisan politics.'
In a statement she said the legislature never attempted to move gubernatorial appointments to officials of a different party during the administration of former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.
'The general assembly continues to focus on playing partisan politics by attacking the appointment power of the governor,' Staley said. 'The stability of the PSC is important to the stability of our energy providers and ability of our families to pay their power bills. This is just the most recent bill continuously changing the PSC's structure or operation or adding supervisory boards.'
Stivers said the legislation is not a 'nefarious plan' to take power away from the governor, arguing the legislature has the right to set policy with the governor executing that policy.
'This is going to raise a lot of discussion and questions about the composition of the PSC, the number of people on the PSC, and the subject matter for which they could consider under the PSC,' Stivers said.
Currently, commission members are barred from being a part of a political action committee, conducting business 'inconsistent' with their duties, receiving things of value from utilities and holding stocks and bonds of a utility. No more than two commission members can have the same occupation, and state law directs the governor to consider expertise in utility regulation and the interests of consumers and utility investors when making appointments.
Under Stivers' bill, the new experience requirements for the three gubernatorial appointees would include:
One commissioner being a licensed attorney who has actively practiced law for at least seven years.
The two other commissioners having education or training and five years of 'actual experience' in one or more fields including economics, engineering, accounting, finance, utility regulation, pipeline or utility infrastructure safety, business management and environmental management.
Of the two commissioners to be appointed by the state auditor, one would be required to have the same experience as the two non-lawyer gubernatorial appointments, and the second appointment by the state auditor would have five years of 'actual experience' as a consumer advocate.
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Stivers pointed to 'outrageously high' utility bills in Eastern Kentucky as part of the reason for wanting a consumer advocate on the PSC. Investor-owned Kentucky Power in Eastern Kentucky serves among the poorest communities in the state while also having among the highest electricity bills in the state.
The bill would also put partisan requirements on the commission, stating no more than three commissioners could be of the same political party. The commission is currently nonpartisan.
In some Southern states, utility commissions are elected in partisan races and the commissioners publicly vote on decisions such as whether to approve utility rate increases or plans to build a power plant. In Kentucky, the commission seats are nonpartisan, and the PSC issues decisions through orders that speak as the consensus of the three-member board. Across the country, the majority of state utility commissions are appointed by governors according to nonprofit, online political encyclopedia Ballotpedia. Most states have three-member boards regulating utilities, though others have boards with five or seven members.
The Senate president did not offer an opinion on whether any of the three current PSC commissioners, all of whom were appointed by Beshear and confirmed by the Senate, would be removed under SB 8 for not meeting experience requirements that his bill would create.
But he did bring up the qualifications of PSC commissioner John Will Stacy, a former Democratic state legislator and county judge-executive. Stivers said he knew of Stacy's experience in local and state government along with some of Stacy's business interests.
'I don't know what that is in the way of qualifications for sitting on the PSC,' Stivers said about Stacy.
The Republican Party of Kentucky on X, formerly Twitter, last year questioned Stacy's qualifications to serve on the PSC when he was appointed. Stacy filled a seat that became vacant when former PSC chair Kent Chandler resigned after a lack of communication from the Beshear administration on his reappointment.
Stivers said the current chair of the PSC, attorney and former Democratic state Rep. Angie Hatton, was doing 'the best job she can do, and I compliment her on that.'
'But this is a very important commission, and it is the prerogative of the general assembly to set commissions and the statutory framework for which they work in. The governor has no control over that,' Stivers said.
It's not clear in the legislation who would determine whether a sitting PSC commissioner has met the designated experience requirements.
The legislature in recent years has passed laws, over vetoes from Beshear and strong opposition from investor-owned utilities, that put additional barriers to the PSC approving requests from utilities to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants. Last year, the legislature passed a law co-sponsored by Stivers that created a new commission outside the PSC to review the impacts of requests to retire fossil fuel-fired power plants.
The laws passed by the legislature also put new, tighter deadlines on the PSC to make decisions in certain cases including requests to build new power plants.
The tighter deadlines come as the regulator is trying to evaluate an influx of renewable energy developers wanting to establish solar farms in the state along with overseeing water utilities confronting aging infrastructure including dilapidated water tanks, pipes and treatment plants.
Chandler, the former chair, had said the PSC was dealing with increasing demands while having fewer staff and less financial resources to do its job.
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