The State Utilities Commission Doesn't Help, Especially in Orange County
According to the NCUC's website it's focus is this:
The North Carolina Utilities Commission is an agency of the State of North Carolina created by the General Assembly to regulate the rates and services of all public utilities in North Carolina.
Today, the Commission regulates electric, telephone (including payphone service and shared tenant service), natural gas, water, wastewater, water resale, household goods transportation, busses, brokers, and ferryboats.
But notice that water part isn't what its cracked up to be.
Recently OWASA (the Oranger Water and Sewer Authority) voted to increase water rates in the county by 17%. In order to raise the rates of utilities in the state, a company/supplier has to submit it to the commission and the proposal has to be approved before a rate increase can go into effect. I emailed an authority at the commission (Don Hoover) with the following comment:
Mr. Hoover,
Recently the Orange Water and Sewer Authority in Orange County voted to raise the county's water rates 17%. Orange County already has the highest water rates in the immediate area and I was wondering if they have to submit any proposed rate increase to the NCUC and if so, did they submit their proposal. Water in Orange County is so expensive and truly unjust.
Thank you,
A concerned citizen
The response I received?
The NCUC has no authority to, and we do not, regulate water and wastewater systems owned and operated by municipal and/or county governments. So the Orange County Water and Sewer Authority (OWSA) is not required to, and does not, seek this Commission’s approval with respect to proposed rate increases. The NCUC regulates investor-owned public utilities operating within North Carolina, including investor-owned water and wastewater companies.
Presumably, OWSA is accountable to the Orange County Board of Commissioners, either directly or indirectly, and of course, the Commissioners comprising the Board of Commissioners are accountable to the citizens/voters of Orange County. Thus, it is argued that such accountability, in effect, operates to ensure that the public interest is fully protected in regard to matters of the present nature and that no further regulation, by this Commission or otherwise, is necessary or warranted with respect to the services in question.
As it might be helpful, you may want to express your concerns to the Orange County Board of Commissioners directly.
This, as I stated in the email originally, is unjust. What's the point in a commission that is supposed to regulate utilities (which includes water service) but doesn't regulate all utilities just because of who supplies the service? For citizens in Orange County, water is fairly expensive in comparison to surrounding counties and should have to do the same actions that Duke Energy or PSNC would have to go through in order to raise rates. The General Assembly should expand the powers of the commission to include municipal and/or county supplied utilities.
I'd trust Orange County planning
more than state planning. Indeed, OWASA strikes me as more well run than most public agencies, with not a lot of fat or waste. They seem to be doing a decent job on long-range planning too.
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The NC Family Policy Council doesn't speak for my family
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
Regardless a 17% increase is
Regardless a 17% increase is a pretty hefty increase to not be regulated, especially since the reasoning for the regulation is controlled monopolies. You have no other choice but to use municipal or county utility services depending on where you live and thus it is a monopoly.
That's a good point
but I tend to worry less about monopolies for government services when there's no profit motive involved.
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The NC Family Policy Council doesn't speak for my family
Do good. Be nice. Have fun.
"No profit motive"?
James - I'd question the assertion that there's "no profit motive" involved when a service is provided by a government, or even a "nonprofit" organization.
The profit motive operates at a personal level, and doesn't require satisfying shareholders. Utility managers looking to advance their career seek larger budgets, more staff, and higher salaries. Growth projections and large capital spending requests are handy vehicles to advance those goals. Bureaucrats and politicians work with suppliers who themselves are seeking to maximize profit.
Especially for customers of public services, when debt is cheap and tax dollars are plentiful during "good times", "investment" soars. When tax revenues decline, and interest rates increase, the taxpayer is increasingly left holding the bag. The politicians, bureaucrats, and contractors who made money and bought influence on the way up leave everybody footing the bill on the way down.
I'm not asserting that these forces are at work in Orange County, and local control is certainly preferable since the incentive for corruption is relatively limited and resulting damage is more localized. But balance is required.
Despite the fact that NBAF is a project of our own Department of Homeland Security as a "government service", I find it impossible to believe that the profit motive is not involved:
NBAF in NC: NOBIO pt.3 from LibertyTUBEtv on Vimeo.
William (B.J.) Lawson, M.D.
Congressional Candidate, North Carolina's 4th District
William (B.J.) Lawson, M.D.
Congressional Candidate, North Carolina's 4th District
The problem is that
The problem is that government stil have a profit motive in terms of fees and what not. However, its less about profit and more about how a government service maybe negatively affecting consumers.
Thank you for posting Mr.
Thank you for posting Mr. Lawson, you gave me an idea for my next blog post (but possibly not in a good way).
Aside from "big government at work and wants your dollars", there maybe a profit motive in the sense that perhaps the authority may have to upgrade the system but there's not enough revenue currently on hand to pay for it. So they can either as the County Commissioners for money or increase rates. Rate increases seem to be easiest thing to do.
I think the Utilities commission is trying to tell you they ....
can't interfere due to not having the statute written for them to do so. And is suggesting that you, as a citizen, can seek to find out why they have such an increase in expenses to justify the rate increase. They must have open meetings, and the board is probably elected or appointed by someone in the county. I recently had a problem with my local internet provider(Embarq) trying to pass on some expense to me. I wrote to the Utility commission about whether it was legal, and they pronptly returned a message to me that they do not regulate internet servers, but did forward my note to the Att'y Gen'ls office. The AG promptly sent a note to my internet provider, who promptly decided to drop the expense incurred me. So I suspect that if they have the authority, they will use it. Just my view on this.