A new bill has been filed in the Arkansas General Assembly that would allow for electric cooperatives to self-regulate.
Rep. Lanny Fite (R-Benton) and Sen. Blake Johnson (R-Corning) are the primary sponsors of House Bill 1055 (HB 1055), which if passed, would establish the “Electric Cooperative Corporation Self-Regulation Act of 2021.” The bill was filed on Dec. 21, 2020.
According to the bill’s authors, it is “in the public interest to allow self-regulation” for corporations that are owned and regulated by member-consumers to be self-regulated and largely exempt from the oversight of the Arkansas Public Service Commission. An electric cooperative, based on the bill’s language, could become self-regulating if a majority of corporation members voted in favor of self-regulation and the corporation notified the commission in writing within 60 days of the result of the membership vote.
If an electric cooperative opted to self-regulate, the corporation would be responsible for establishing its own rates and own services. The corporation would be required to set rates that “reasonably approximates that the costs of providing service to the respective classes of service of the corporation.” In addition, the corporation would be required to make the rates and terms accessible on its website.
While electric cooperatives that took this route would self-regulate themselves, the Arkansas Public Service Commission would continue to hold jurisdiction in specific matters. This would include siting transmission facilities “subject to a requirement for a certificate of public convenience and necessity, ad valorem tax assessments and certain other situations.
The bill authors also specified that self-regulated electric cooperatives would not be permitted to make “the provision of electric service conditional upon the nonelectric service offferings of the corporation.”
The Arkansas General Assembly’s regular session begins Monday, Jan. 11, 2021.
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