The Alliance is the only dedicated consumer advocate in Louisiana for utility customers. The Alliance monitors regulatory proceedings at both of Louisiana’s utility regulatory bodies: the New Orleans City Council and the Louisiana Public Service Commission. The Alliance is holding electric and gas utilities, and their regulators accountable. We work to limit unfair costs that would otherwise be passed along to ratepayers on their energy bills.
Through organizing, education, and research, The Alliance looks for regulatory and policy solutions to Louisiana’s biggest problems. Knowledge is power. We also aim to educate consumers on their rights and the true cost of energy.
In 2024, The Alliance helped secure $125 Million for customers when Cleco and Swepco dispatched their Dolet Hills Power Station unnecessarily and charged their ratepayers for it.
Every state has a Public Service Commission (PSC) which has regulatory authority over utilities. Typically, states also designate and fund a consumer advocate whose job is to represent consumers’ interests and protect consumers’ rights in regulatory proceedings. Many consumer advocates also run education and outreach programs that help consumers stay informed about energy issues that affect them.
Louisiana is one of 3 states (along with Georgia, and Idaho) in the US that does not have a consumer advocate designated and funded by the government or other mechanism. The Alliance for Affordable Energy has stepped up to fill that role and is the only dedicated consumer advocate in Louisiana for energy utility customers.
The Alliance is deeply concerned with the rapid expansion of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the Gulf South, especially for ratepayers. CCS has long been promised as the industrial solution to climate change, but no matter what you call it (remember Clean Coal?) technologies that extend the life of the fossil fuel industry and do so at the expense of utility customers are a waste of precious money and time.
We agree that drawing down carbon through natural processes is an important element of addressing the climate crisis. However, utilities planning to spend billions of customer dollars to capture the toxic waste only to pump it through communities and threaten our air and water is a false solution.
The Alliance for Affordable Energy and Citizens for Change worked with the New Orleans City Council and Entergy New Orleans to develop a Ratepayer’s Bill of Rights, which was codified into city law in 2007. The Ratepayer’s Bill of Rights guarantees that as a ratepayer you have the right to “safe and reliable service in accordance with industry standards.”
Now part of the city code, the law states, “If you feel that the Utility has violated your rights or is in violation of its Customer Service Regulations, you have the right to participate in the Customer Complaint and Dispute Resolution Process.” The Alliance encourages you to exercise your rights as a ratepayer and take advantage of this dispute resolution process if needed; and as your consumer advocate we’re here to help. Learn more about the Utility Complaint & Dispute Resolution Process on our blog.
In 2021 we supported the development of a new national Customer Bill of Rights with the National Consumer Law Center. In 2023, following The Alliance’s reporting on the challenges New Orleanians have with billing problems the Council opened a docket to update the city’s code and improve the Complaint and Dispute process.
The Alliance is also an intervenor in a docket about consumer protections at the LPSC. Your input is important to us! Take our brief survey to let us know what protections matter to you.
The law gives investor-owned utilities the opportunity to earn an allowed profit, called “Return on Equity.” Investor-owned utilities in Louisiana are earning about 10% near guaranteed profit. Utilities typically urge their regulators to increase these allowed profit margins through formal proceedings, either rate cases, or multi-year formula rate plans, and to reduce their risk of not delivering profits to shareholders.
The Alliance intervenes in all IOU Utility rate cases to limit the extreme utility burdens residents in Louisiana experience. To learn more, check out our blog post Why Utility Rate Design is So Hot Right Now! Need some help understanding utility rate design? Referenced in our blog post is Bob Shively’s helpful EnergyDynamics article, The Revenue Requirement Is the Key to How Utilities Make Money.
As storms of all kinds intensify due to climate change, resilience is a buzzword these days. Since Hurricane Ida in 2021, utility regulators have begun to look more closely at how to ensure people can stay safe and power can stay on, or come back more quickly, after major weather events. Dockets have been opened at the LPSC and New Orleans City Council to identify how utilities should plan and invest in resilience, while Entergy companies have filed applications to their regulators for billions in new spending to harden the grid.
Only hardening the utility’s poles and wires doesn’t keep people safe in extreme heat and extreme cold, and can’t address the needs of communities when the power does go out. The Alliance is also urging regulators to consider different ways to address resilience concerns and think holistically about what it means to adapt to the dangers of climate change.
