The House Consumer Affairs Committee this week heard an update on a variety of issues from Public Utility Commission Chair James H. Cawley and the other four Commission members.

In his “State of the Commission” presentation, Chairman Cawley discussed the expiration of electric rate caps, broadband deployment across the state and competition within the natural gas market, among other utility issues.

A copy of Chairman Cawley's presentation is available online.

The Chairman outlined these issue priorities in the coming year--

-- Gas safety jurisdiction over unregulated propane and landfill gas providers;

-- Fair recovery of assessments from electric and natural gas suppliers;

-- Wastewater system improvements through adopting Distribution System Improvement Charges;

-- Increased fines for gas pipeline safety violations; and

-- Clarification of the Commission's jurisdiction over allocation of rail/highway crossing costs.

On mitigating the impact of rate caps coming off the cost of electricity in 2010, Chairman Cawley pointed out that before electric competition, Pennsylvania's electricity rates were about 15 percent higher than the national average and now with competition they are about 13-14 percent lower than the national average.

Along with Chairman Cawley, Vice Chairman Tyrone J. Christy, and Commissioners Robert F. Powelson, Kim Pizzingrilli and Wayne E. Gardner answered questions from Committee members.

Among other issues addressed by the Commissioners were questions about whether Distribution System Improvement Charges (DISC) should be adopted for the natural gas, electric and wastewater systems.

A majority of the Commissioners supported DISC charges to allow infrastructure systems to recover costs for upgrading and improving their systems without waiting for rate cases. They pointed out DISC charges have helped drinking water systems improve their infrastructure for several years.

Chairman Preston said he supported DISC charges, but would have to be "convinced" to adopt them for electric systems.

Rep. Joseph Preston (D-Allegheny) serves as Majority Chair of the Committee and Rep. Robert Godshall (R-Montgomery) serves as Minority Chair.

2/13/2009