Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

letters to the editor:

PUC didn’t act in public interest

The guest column in your Dec. 29 issue of the Sun, “Gov. Sandoval’s PUC showing its bias for an old-school utility,” exposed some troubling issues regarding the Public Utility Commission’s recent decision to side with NV Energy and essentially shut down rooftop solar in Nevada as Lyndon Rive, CEO of the largest rooftop-solar business, stated in a recent news release.

A Dec. 27 Forbes article, “Buffett’s Bolshevik: Dissecting NV Energy’s Soviet-Style Sabotage of Distributed Energy” by William Pentland, a partner in a consulting firm that focuses on utility-regulation issues, exposes even more concerns. Pentland noted that the PUC’s staff recognized “that net metering ratepayers do not impose any significant additional costs on NV Energy or other ratepayer classes at this time,” yet the PUC decision punishes rooftop-solar owners and installers. It appears that the PUC is no longer the Public Utility Commission, but rather the Private Utility Commission.

With a vast majority of our residents favoring solar energy and Nevada being rich in sunshine, we clearly need positive change. Our state should be a model for the nation in fighting climate change rather than a model for preserving a monopolist energy company owned by outsiders. Perhaps we need to do what is necessary to convert the three-member PUC to being elected rather than appointed by the governor. Or maybe we should consider converting NV Energy into a state-owned utility. Clearly we cannot count on the PUC to protect the public against the NV Energy monopoly.

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