Columns

Governor just might ruin PSC's reputation

By HOWARD TROXLER
Published January 14, 2007

Okay, wait a minute. Let's get this straight.

We're kicking out two members of the Florida Public Service Commission who were chosen by our last governor, Jeb Bush ...

And we're replacing them with two picks from our new governor, Charlie Crist, because they're more "consumer-oriented."

Consumer-oriented? On the PSC?

I think I feel faint. The room is spinning. Water, please.

Here's who Bush wanted, but who Crist kicked off:

- Ken Littlefield, a former Republican legislator from Pasco County. He voted for the infamous 2003 law that doubled phone rates, and later backed a law to ease ethics rules for the PSC.

- Isilio Arriaga, a South Florida businessman who was already on the PSC and whom Bush wanted to reappoint.

Instead, Crist picked a guy who used to run Florida's pro-consumer "lemon law" program for automobiles, and a young PSC staffer.

This is a weird feeling. It's weird, especially, to hear all the consumer groups using the same words of praise for the governor's new appointments that all the utility types used to use.

For much of the past 20 years, the PSC has been one of the most entertaining parts of state government.

There have been some doozy stories over the years about how Florida's regulated utilities played buddy-buddy with the PSC. We're talking ski trips, fancy dinners, even the occasional love affair.

Even in just the past two or three years, we've seen a PSC member caught parroting, word for word, a statement ghost-written by utility companies, and ethics charges involving commissioners.

In the name of fairness, this must be said about the current crop of five: There hasn't been a blip of bad news about them. A cynic might say it just hasn't come out yet, but those of us who are sunny optimists prefer to think it's because they've been better.

And yet the mere absence of scandal at the PSC doesn't make everything else sweet for Florida customers. The bigger story has never been what's illegal, but what's legal - Florida is known on Wall Street for having a favorable climate for utility profits.

Over the past decade, our Legislature has tripped over itself to pass any law that Florida's local telephone companies wanted.

On the electric side, the scandals that followed California's deregulation stopped cold any talk of the same thing in Florida. But today, we're on the verge of a new era of electric expansion, and the Legislature already has eased the way for new nuclear plants.

Now, here is one polite criticism of the new governor, who can be forgiven for not having time to learn the correct lingo.

We don't want a PSC member to be "consumer-oriented," any more than "utility-oriented." The job of the PSC is to be a fair judge, striking a balance between the interests of utilities and their customers.

But for the past two decades, the decisions of the PSC have almost unrelentingly sided with utility interests. It is the regulated companies, ad nauseam, who praise the PSC for its "fairness" and "wisdom," while wining and dining PSC commissioners when they could.

So if by "consumer-oriented," the governor means to say, "not entirely in the bag on the side of utility companies," we should stand up and cheer. Quick, let's get the Legislature to confirm these picks before anybody wakes up.

[Last modified January 14, 2007, 00:11:32]