Letter: It’s time for consumer advocate to act

Wednesday, March 20, 2002 | 9:07 a.m.

Congress did not adequately study the effects of utility deregulation before passing this hot potato to the states. The state public utilities commissions were not able to establish nor define all the parameters involved due to insufficient funding for such studies.

There were many deregulation items never addressed by the states' public utilities commissions, consumer advocates or the legislatures, and yet deregulation was initiated.

Caps were established forcing the utilities to purchase or manufacture power and sell to customers at a loss. Consequently several utilities have filed for bankruptcy at taxpayers' expense.

Should we pay for the power we use or revert to shoplifting?

The Consumer Advocate's Office has stated that Nevada Power acted imprudently in purchasing energy. The public health and welfare of the state of Nevada requires power reliability, which could not have been achieved by chance but by prudent decisions made by Nevada Power.

It is now the consumer advocate's turn to act prudently to protect the public from future taxation that will far outweigh the $922 million rate increase Nevada Power is requesting.

MARK BAGLEY