NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Kansas Chamber on Monday released its energy study, State of Electricity in Kansas. Chamber President and CEO Alan Cobb said the reason they had this studied is that it is a key issue when businesses make choices between states.
"It is an economic competitiveness issue," Cobb said. "We're higher than most of our competing, if not all of our competing states, certainly in the region and other states that have a similar demographic and business mix. Kansas, Indiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, etc. There's certainly a bottom line issue here."
One of the solutions is changing some of the framework at the Kansas Corporation Commission. There are several ways to get that done.
"Admittedly, it's a theory, but there's other states that elect commissioners," Cobb said. "We have 50 states, and you don't have exactly 50 ways to elect utility commissions, but there's a difference across the country. Does it make them more accountable to ratepayers? I think there's a good thought that, yes, it would. If you're on the corporation commission, you definitely want to be paying attention to reliability and cost. Would it make them more accountable, as opposed to, there's been a little bit of an issue of, KCC's gotten better, but hey, whatever the utilities want, the KCC approves, that's an overstatement, but there's some truth to that."
Also, there could be a change in staffing at the KCC, as well.
"One interesting proposal to consider was adding staff to the KCC," Cobb said. "Are there too many rate cases that are simply settled because there's not enough intellectual resources there at the KCC to be able to dig in and try to figure out how to make the rate cases have a better negotiated end, instead of just settling them. All of those things should be at the table."
Cobb said this is the first time that he knows of that the structure of the KCC has even been looked at for changes. Much like the county commissions in many Kansas counties, there are only three KCC commissioners, which means there can't be discussions between commissioners outside of their public meetings without running afoul of open meetings law. This also complicates the negotiation process.
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