Guinn vows to ‘protect the ratepayers’

Erin Neff

Tuesday, March 12, 2002 | 10:04 a.m.

Gov. Kenny Guinn clearly states it's not his role to tell the Public Utilities Commission how to rule on Nevada Power's request for a rate increase, but he isn't silent on the utility's $922 million request.

"We have to protect the ratepayers," Guinn said Saturday to delegates at the Clark County Republican Convention in Las Vegas.

Guinn, who served as president and chairman of the board of directors of Southwest Gas Corp. in the late 1980s and early '90s, said the company has already had to back down from two other proposed increases.

In an interview Monday the former utility executive said his "pretty strong messages" have already helped lower the percentage of the increases the company is seeking.

"First, they asked for a 37 percent increase and I said no," Guinn said. "Then, they asked for 27 percent and I said no. And they're not going to get what they asked for this time."

The governor appoints the members of the PUC, but said, "I can't get involved with the PUC and tell them what to do."

Instead, Guinn said he is closely monitoring the issue but leaving the three PUC commissioners to make their own decision.

Some have argued during recent hearings on the proposed rate hike that Nevada Power should simply file for bankruptcy and allow a public entity to take over.

But Guinn said the negative results of a bankruptcy would surpass any positives.

Two of California's three power companies' bankruptcies have contributed to the state's $17.2 billion deficit as a result of public bail-outs.

"We fully don't intend to do the same," Guinn said.

What's more, he said, a bankruptcy could cripple Nevada's only power company, making it hard to borrow millions of dollars needed to fuel the summer power use in the deserts of Southern Nevada.

"You could probably pick out for certain people that a bankruptcy would be positive," Guinn said. "But for the majority of people, it's negative."