Changes needed now for IURC

Once upon a time, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission was a regulatory agency.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when a utility asked for a rate increase or a rate restructuring, there was actually a bit of doubt whether it would be approved.
While it was cozy with utilities even back then, there was a feeling that consumers had a place at the table with the IURC.
But somewhere along the line, that role disappeared.
Over time, the IURC has become a virtual rubber stamp for the utility companies that have come before it. And it has become harder and harder for consumers to make themselves heard.
Now the ethical bankruptcy of the agency is on full display.
The IURC’s general counsel and chief administrative law judge was busy this summer negotiating a new job with one of the utilities he was supposedly helping to regulate.
And, until the obvious conflict of interest was brought to light, the state’s “ethics panel” had no problem with that.
 The panel’s re-thinking that opinion at the moment, and the utility is scrambling to put things right.
But the real problem is structural.
Because the IURC is appointed, the commission is simply an arm of the governor’s office and is insulated from the public.
In most states, it doesn’t work that way.
Instead, utility regulatory commission members are elected by the voters and are then held accountable at the polls.
Rather than serving just the interests of a governor or political party, commissioners have to answer to consumers and rate-payers as well.
At the moment, the focus is on the poor judgment of one or two people.
But if we’re going to have true utility regulation in Indiana, the current system is going to have to be junked and a new one — which gives Hoosiers a real voice — is going to have to be created. — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]