Democrats moving ahead with plan to ban power plant sales

BRENDAN RILEY

Monday, March 5, 2001 | 3:50 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Nevada's Democratic legislative leaders said Monday they're moving ahead quickly with a plan to block major electric utilities from selling off power plants.

The Democrats said measures to block the plant sales and to ensure a moratorium on utility deregulation will be introduced this week.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, and Assembly Majority Floor Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, also said a select Assembly panel on energy should be in operation by mid-month.

In the Senate, Minority Leader Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, said a measure to streamline the licensing process for new power plants also should be introduced soon.

Buckley said the power plant sale ban is critical because one of several pending plant sales is supposed to close in the next couple of weeks.

While the state Public Utility Commission has the power to block the sale, Buckley added lawmakers who don't want the sale to go through are worried that the PUC might not act.

"We don't want to leave this to chance," she said.

Titus added that the PUC has revised its name by dropping "service" and replacing it with "utility" - and now is seen by critics as being too favorable to utilities.

"Their priorities seem to have switched with their name change," she said.

Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn has put deregulation on hold, and has come up with a wide-ranging energy plan that includes incentives for new power plant construction.

The speedup proposal would ensure Nevada gets up to half of the new power plant production, but it's not clear whether the price that Nevadans would pay for the new power would be a good deal.

If a limit of some sort on the prices isn't in the Guinn plan, Buckley said, "We'll add it."

While deregulation is stalled in Nevada, the state PUC has just allowed a $311 million rate hike for Reno-based Sierra Pacific Power Co. and Las Vegas-based Nevada Power Co., both subsidiaries of Sierra Pacific Resources.

PUC Chairman Don Soderberg has defended the rate hike approval, saying the commission faced a tough decision and could have taken the easy route of denying or delaying the rate hike.

Soderberg also said the PUC vote doesn't mean the increase is set in stone. He said that if later data show the increase isn't warranted, ratepayers could get refunds.

Under the rate hike, residential and small commercial customers will see increases averaging just over 13 percent. Hotel-casinos will see increases of about 20 percent, mines will get rate hikes averaging about 25 percent, and agricultural irrigators will get increases ranging from 15 percent to nearly 30 percent.

A residential customer who gets by on just 650 kilowatt hours of electricity a month will see a 10.4 percent increase - up just over $6 to about $68.