Power rate hike in hands of three

Friday, Feb. 1, 2002 | 9:56 a.m.

Two lawyers and an economist will decide the fate of Nevada Power's proposed rate hike.

The trio, who head the Public Utilities Commission, will open formal hearings Monday in Las Vegas on the company's request for an additional $22.9 million to cover administrative costs.

And then on March 4, Chairman Donald Soberberg and fellow members Adriana Escobar Chanos and Richard McIntire -- all gubernatorial appointees serving four-year terms -- will begin hearing testimony regarding Nevada Power's request for $922 million for energy already used by Southern Nevadans.

The commissioners are assisted by 83 PUC employees, including policy analysts, who will help sift through mounds of prepared testimony from local governments and businesses opposed to the rate hikes. PUC staff members, who work separately from the analysts, have recommended that Nevada Power's administrative costs be slashed by $60 million.

"We clearly knew when these cases were filed that they would have a large impact," Soderberg said Thursday. "The impact on the state from these rate cases is probably bigger than any other cases. We need to do our best work here, and I conveyed that to our staff."

Soderberg, an attorney, has served on the regulatory body since 1995, when it was known as the Public Service Commission. A graduate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, he received his law degree from the University of San Diego and served as an aide to former Sen. Paul Laxalt, R-Nev.

Soderberg makes $95,709 annually, the others $89,742.

Soderberg has contributed to "Nevada Gaming Law," a textbook on gaming regulation, and is also an authority on environmental issues.

He conducted four public hearings in the Las Vegas Valley over the past two weeks that attracted about 1,100 people, including 190 who voiced their opinions. But he said the intense public interest in this case did not intimidate him.

"I don't think it puts any extra pressure on us," Soderberg said.

Chanos, a fellow attorney and UNLV graduate who has been a commissioner since last year, received her law degree from California Western School of Law. A former deputy city attorney in San Diego, she is a founding partner of the Chanos Escobar Chanos law firm in Las Vegas, which specializes in business transactions and dispute resolution.

A former Nevada Taxicab Authority member, she has been affiliated with the Nevada Association for the Handicapped and has produced Spanish-language television programs on drug abuse prevention. She was also a member of the Latin Chamber of Commerce board in Las Vegas.

McIntire, a commissioner since 1999, moved to Nevada after working for the Minnesota attorney general's office and the Long Island Lighting Co. in New York.

He joined the Public Service Commission in 1992 as an economist and later worked for the Bureau of Consumer Protection in the Nevada attorney general's office. He then rejoined the commission as director of regulatory operations before becoming a commissioner. He also teaches mathematics, economics and statistics at the University of Phoenix in Reno and is vice president of the Nevada Festival Ballet.

Former Public Utilities Commission Chairman Scott Craigie, who served in that post from 1983 to 1989, said he thinks the current commissioners are up to the task. Craigie will testify before the commission as a representative of a coalition of businesses opposed to the proposed rate hikes.

"Actually, I have a high level of confidence in them," Craigie said. "They have shown a willingness to balance the interests of all parties and make some tough decisions.

"The commission was formed in 1919, and this is the toughest case put before it. It is the toughest case ever because the dollar amounts are enormous."

Nevada Power has indicated it would file with the commission today an amended proposal that would spread out the proposed rate hike payments over six years, rather than three, as stipulated under existing state law.

However, state Consumer Advocate Timothy Hay said Wednesday that such a plan could cost Southern Nevadans $285 million in interest payments, rather than the $138 million in interest that could be tacked onto the $922 million rate request if approved for only three years.

But Nevada Power spokesman Paul Heagen said the six-year plan would effectively cut in half the estimated 25 percent rate hike consumers could have faced if forced to pay the increased costs over three years.

"It is terribly disappointing to think that the consumer advocate would make an issue of something he's well aware of to divert people's attention from what they have called for, which is to find a way to reduce the impact the increases will have on our customers," Heagen said.

The hearings at 101 Convention Center Drive will be conducted much like trials, including cross examination of Nevada Power officials and representatives of business and government customers who are opposed to the rate hike requests. Soderberg said he will demand that attorneys who perform the cross-examinations stick to the point and refrain from "fishing expeditions."

"We look to see that the witness has done a complete job and can defend in detail their work," Soderberg said. "When witnesses cannot back up their work, you start to distrust them."

The commission has until April 1 to reach decisions in both rate cases.