20111219Volume V Public Hearing.pdf

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..BEFORE THE IDAHÒd?UB1l:ic~UTILITIES COMMISSION
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OF IDAHO POWER COMPANY FOR
AUTHORITY TO INCREASE ITS
RATES AND CHARGES FOR ELECTRIC
SERVICE IN IDAHO
)
) CASE NO. IPC-E-11-08
)
)
)
)
BEFORE
COMMISSIONER MARSHA H. SMITH (Presiding)
COMMISSIONER MACK A. REDFORD
COMMISSIONER PAUL KJELLANDER
.PLACE:Commission Hearing Room
472 West Washington
Boise, Idaho
DATE:December 5, 2011
VOLUME V.. Pages 587 - 621
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CSBREPORTING
Constance S. Bucy,CSRNo. 187
23876 Applewood Way * Wilder, Idaho 83676
[phone] * [phone]
Email csbcÐeritagewifi.com
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1 BOISE, IDAHO, MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2011, 7: 00 P. M.
2
3
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Good evening, ladies
5 and gentlemen. Welcome to the Idaho Public Utilities
6 Commission. This is a public hearing in Case No.
7 IPC-E-11-08, further identified as in the matter of the
8 application of Idaho Power Company for authority to
9 increase its rates and charges for electric service in
10 Idaho. My name is Marsha Smith. I i m one of the three
11 Commissioners in Idaho and Ilm Chair of tonight i s
12 hearing. On my left is President Paul Kj ellander and on
13 my right is Commissioner Mack Redford and the three of us
14 constitute your State Public Utili ties Commission who has
15 the authority to decide this application of Idaho Power
16 Company.
17 We i 11 begin by taking the appearances,
18 from the Applicant?
19 MS. NORDSTROM: Lisa Nordstrom, attorney
20 for Idaho Power Company.
21 COMMISSIONER SMITH: And for the Staff.
22 MR. KLEIN: Karl Klein, Deputy Attorney
23 General, for the Staff.
24 COMMISSIONER SMITH: And let the record
25 reflect that none of the other parties except for Mr.
CSB REPORTING
[phone]
587 COLLOQUY
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1 Miller are making an appearance at tonight i s public
2 hearing. Tonight is the time that we i ve set aside to
3 hear from members of the public, customers of Idaho Power
4 Company regarding the Company i s requested proposal and
5 the settlement that is under consideration by the
6 Commission.
7 Our procedure goes as follows: If you
8 have signed a list indicating you i re interested to
9 testify, I will call your name. When you come forward,
10 President Kj ellander will ask you to raise your right
11 hand and swear that you i re going to tell us the truth.
12 Then there i s a seat for you at this podium here with a
13 microphone so that you can give your statement.
14 Before you begin, our Staff attorney Mr.
15 Klein will ask you to state your name and spell your last
16 name and to please give us your mailing address. That is
17 so you i 11 be properly identified for the record. If
18 you i 11 notice, we have a court reporter because the
19 Commission i s decisions must be based on substantial
20 evidence in the record, and so every part of our
21 proceeding is in a transcript provided by the court
22 reporter, and in the event that someone doesn i t like what
23 we decide, they are free to appeal that decision to the
24 State Supreme Court which relies on the transcript to
25 determine whether the Commission has acted appropriately,
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588 COLLOQUY
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17
1 so with that introduction, I i 11 just go straight to the
2 list of names and the first person is Lynn Young.
3
4 LYNN YOUNG,
5 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn,
6 was examined and testified as follows:
7
8 EXAINATION
9
10 BY MR. KLEIN:
11 Q Good afternoon, Ms. Young. I i m over here.
12 Ilm Karl Klein. Ilm the attorney for the Commission
13 Staff and I just have a few housekeeping questions I i d
14 like to ask you and then you can go ahead and give your
15 statement.
16 A Certainly.
Q Would you please state your full name and
18 spell your last name for the record?
19 A Yes, it i S Lynn Young and my last name is
20 Y-o-u-n-g. I live at 2786 South Denali Place in
21 Meridian, Idaho.
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23
24
25
Q And you i re a customer of Idaho Power?
A I am.
Q Do you have a statement you i d like to
make?
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589 YOUNG
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1 A I do.
2 Q Please go ahead.
3 A I i m a customer of Idaho Power, but I 'm
4 also here tonight to testify on behalf of the AARP and
5 our more than 180,000 members in the Gem State. Ilm a
6 volunteer on the Executive Council of AARP Idaho and a
7 member of AARP i S National Policy Council, which is
8 charged with reviewing policy issues and recommending
9 posi tions to the AARP board which sets policy for the
10 association and its 30 million members.
11 AARP is extremely concerned about this
12 rate case and its impact on Idaho consumers. Idaho
13 Power i s request for an $83 million -- for $83 million in
14 a rate hike, hitting residential customer with an 8.83
15 percent higher bill, as well as an increase of a dollar
16 per month to a customer service charge is far too great a
17 burden on Idaho residential consumers.
18 This rate hike would give Idaho Power a
19 10.5 percent rate of return on equity. Approving this
20 rate hike is not a fair balance between the needs and
21 interests of the utility Company and those of the
22 consumers. We do understand that a non-binding
23 settlement conference of intervening parties, including
24 Idaho Power, has resulted in a $34 million rate case.
25 The average increase across all customer classes is, to
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590 YOUNG
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1 our understanding, is 4.19 percent, with the increase in
2 the customer service charge continuing to be a dollar a
3 month .
4 AARP was not an intervenor in this case
5 and the voiced needs and concerns of Idaho i s average
6 residential consumers were not represented at the table
7 during the conference proceedings. The return on equity
8 guaranteed through this settlement agreement is nearly 8
9 percent, a great deal for Idaho Power and a bad deal for
10 Idaho consumers. We argue, again, that this is too great
11 a burden on Idaho residential consumers. The specifics
12 of this non-binding settlement conference are
13 confidential and not known to Idaho Power customers at
14 this time, so we continue to remain very concerned about
15 how other components aside from the rate hike will affect
16 residential customers, particularly those on fixed or low
17 incomes as many of the state i s people who are age 50 and
18 above are on.
19 Some issues that affect the residential
20 customers and not resolved in the settlement meetings are
21 the amount of funding for the low income weatherization
22 program and the level of a surcharge on bills for the
23 energy efficiency rider, a surcharge on consumers i bills
24 which is presently pegged at 4.75 percent. With regard
25 to that surcharge for energy efficiency, it doesn i t tell
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591 YOUNG
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1 the whole story about energy efficiency and demand side
2 management costs since DSM program costs have been moved
3 out of the energy efficiency rider, and Idaho Power is
4 asking to collect an additional 11.3 million for demand
5 response payments as power supply costs.
6 This is on top of any rate hike request
7 they have currently before the Commission, so here are
8 some facts that help put this rate hike into perspective.
9 An AARP survey released earlier this year found over 40
10 percent of Idahoans 50 and above reported already having
11 difficul ty affording their current utility bills. In
12 many cases an increase would be the straw that breaks the
13 camel i s back.
14 IDACORP, Incorporated, Idaho Power IS
15 holding company, reported third quarter earnings topping
16 $100 million. To put that in perspective, 40 million
17 higher than the 2010 third quarter earnings and five
18 times higher than the second quarter earnings this year.
19 Idaho ranks 49th in per capita income among the states,
20 so while utility companies and others argue these kind of
21 rates are just fine because Idaho has some of the lowest
22 rates in the nation, well, Idaho also has low incomes to
23 match, so hikes still hit hard.
24 The average monthly social security
25 benefi t for an Idaho retiree is $1,117. Three in ten
CSB REPORTING
[phone]
592 YOUNG
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1 older Idahoans count on this for their entire retirement
2 income. Wi th soaring health costs, rise in prescription
3 drugs, gas and grocery prices, many already have a tough
4 balancing act just to afford the basics. In 2010, one in
5 six Idaho residents received social security. That was
6 65 percent of those beneficiaries are retirees, but 35
7 percent are not. They i re widows and widowers, people
8 wi th disabilities, spouses and children, with many
9 adversely affected by another hike in their utility
10 bills.
11 We know that more than half of all Idaho
12 school children qualify for free or reduced price of
13 school lunches. These children represent families
14 already struggling. Higher bills are the last thing they
15 need. The bottom line is what i s good for Idaho Power is
16 not always good for Idaho. We ask the Commission to
17 consider the impact of any rate increase at this time to
18 all customer classes, but particularly the residential
19 customers who use the least electricity each month.
20 Those customers will see much larger rate increases.
21 The increase in the customer service
22 charge has a greater impact on the lowest usage customer.
23 For example, for a customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a
24 month, their monthly bills under the original rate case
25 filing could increase by as much as $7.00 a month.
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[phone]
593 YOUNG
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1 According to the Energy Information Administration, the
2 average residential usage in Idaho in 2009 was 1,080
3 kilowatt-hours per month.
4 With high levels of unemployment, older
5 Idahoans have to choose between heating their homes,
6 buying groceries or picking up their prescriptions,
7 because they can i t afford to do all these things on a
8 fixed income of a little over $1,000 a month. It would
9 seem that it has been profitable enough for Idaho Power
10 and IDACORP that they could perhaps coast along on its
11 profi ts and give its customers a break from never-ending
12 rate increases.
13 Idaho Power i s rate hike request and the
14 non-binding closed door settlement agreement make a clear
15 case for the need to create a consumer advocate office in
16 Idaho to ensure residential and small businesses,
17 including family farms, do not continue to get left out
18 in the cold as only those parties that can afford to pay
19 to be at the table make the agreements that determine all
20 of our utility bills. These rate hikes are a bad idea in
21 a good economy. In todayl s economy, they are a horrible
22 idea. AARP urges the Public Utilities Commission to deny
23 the Idaho Power rate hike increase.
24 Thank you very much.
25 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you very much.
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[phone]
594 YOUNG
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21
1 Let i s see if there are any questions for you.
2 Ms. Nordstrom.
3 MS. NORDSTROM: None from Idaho Power.
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Klein.
5 MR. KLEIN: None from the Staff.
6 COMMISSIONER SMITH: From the
7 Commissioners.
8
9 EXAMINATION
10
11 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:
12 Q First of all, thank you for your testimony
13 today. I know you stated that AARP is very concerned
14 about the impact on its members and that you also are
15 invol ved with some of the policy decisions regarding AARP
16 in Idaho. Are you aware of the intervening funding
17 mechanism that exists within the Public Utilities
18 Commission as it relates to parties like AARP if they
19 decided to be an intervenor in a case?
A Yes, we are.
Q Have you looked at that as an option in
22 terms of future participation?
23 A We look at -- we have looked at that, but
24 again, when we look at a consumer advocate office, they
25 would represent all of your residential consumers, not
CSB REPORTING
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595 YOUNG (Com)
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1 just low income, not just those over age 50, but all of
2 the consumers and that i s what we think is missing in the
3 equation.
4 Q In lieu of that, is there any serious
5 thought from the AARP of actually participating as an
6 intervenor in future rate cases?
7 A Those are things that are taken on a
8 case-by-case basis and I would not be one of the deciders
9 on that, so I really can i t effectively answer that
10 question.
11 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you.
12
13 EXAMINATION
14
15 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
16 Q And my only question was to my knowledge,
17 the settlement conferences were open to the public, to
18 anyone, really, except the Commissioners who have to
19 decide the case, so I was curious what led you to the
20 conclusion that they were closed door, somehow not
21 public.
22 A I did not know that. That i s not what
23 we i ve heard in the past and that i s not -- we did not know
24 that was true.
25 Q Well, okay, just, I guess, file it away.
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596 YOUNG (Com)
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1 A Now we know it.
2 Q The terms of the settlement, of course,
3 are public and the Commission had a full day hearing
4 today on what i s proposed in that settlement, in addition
5 to the issues you mentioned, which were not settled by
6 the parties and which are still at issue in front of the
7 Commission.
8 A And we knew that today i s technical hearing
9 we would be able to come to. What we did not believe we
10 could go to was the hearing where the Intervenors met
11 with the Company to talk about various issues surrounding
12 the case, and so Ilm still really surprised by that,
13 because I do know that press releases are put out that
14 talk about generalities, but specifics, unless -- I 'm
15 just surprised by that, so that i s good to know.
16 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Okay, and well, we
17 certainly appreciate your interest and your appearance
18 here tonight. Thank you for coming.
19 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
(The witness left the stand.)
COMMISSIONER SMITH: The next name on my
22 list is Alexandra Height.
23
24
25
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597 YOUNG (Com)
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1 ALEXANDRA HEIDT,
2 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn,
3 was examined and testified as follows:
4
5 EXAMINATION
6
7 BY MR. KLEIN:
8 Q Good evening. Could you please state your
9 full name and spell your last name for the record?
A Alexandra Heidt, H-e-i-d-t.
11 Q Thanks. What i s your mailing address?
12 A 4889 Edison Road, Marsing, Idaho, 83639.
13 Q And are you a customer of Idaho Power?
14 A I am.
15 Please go ahead with your statement.Q
16 Like I said, my name is Alexandra HeidtA
17 and I live in Marsing and I am here tonight because my
18 husband and I have noticed a steep increase in our
19 electrical bill in the last few years. I called Idaho
20 Power, I believe, about a year ago to find out what was
21 happening. I was referred to the Idaho Public Utilities
22 and I spoke with Mr. Curtis. It was Mr. Curtis who
23 explained to me what was going on and suggested that I
24 come here tonight and give testimony.
25 Mr. Curtis was kind enough to explain that
CSB REPORTING
[phone]
598 HEIDT
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1 our bills were so high because new legislation has been
2 passed that allows for billing at a tiered rate. Some of
3 our electricity is charged to us at the higher second and
4 third tier rate. I understand that this legislation was
5 approved to discourage excess use of electricity by, the
6 way I understand it by, penalizing the consumer who
7 doesn't just pay more proportionately for their use, but
8 actually gets charged higher prices for electricity, so
9 they're buying electricity at a higher rate, and the way
10 I understand it, this is expected to discourage higher
11 usage and limit the need for new electricity production.
12 It is this concept of excessive use of
13 electricity that I wish to address tonight. What
14 consti tutes excessive use and who determines it is my
15 question, and I wonder what were the levels for tier 1,
16 tier 2 and the third tier based on. We live out in the
17 countryside and just as an example to contrast them to
18 our situation, I will use my in-laws as an example.
19 My in-laws live next door in anew,
20 well-insulated home next door to us. They heat and air
21 condition their home so that their home temperature stays
22 year-round somewhere in the '7 Os Fahrenheit. Their
23 electric bill, I believe, is all in the first tier and
24 itls around $80.00 a month. They heat their house, cook
25 and dry their clothes with propane gas. There are only
CSB REPORTING
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599 HEIDT
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1 two of them in their home.
2 i will contrast back to my circumstances.
3 We do not have air conditioning. Our home runs about 90
4 degrees in the summer. We do not have a furnace or any
5 duct work. Our house is all electrical. We also use
6 electrici ty for the pump in our well and for small
7 agricul tural usage. It's been hovering around 60 degrees
8 in the winter in my home. In fact, it was 58 degrees
9 this morning in my kitchen. We have seven people living
10 in it, so I go back to the question of what constitutes
11 excessive use.
12 Has this legislation distinguished between
13 homes that are all electrical and homes that are heated
14 with gas? Does this legislation that allows the tiered
15 rate billing distinguish between households of two people
16 and households of seven or eight? Does this legislation
17 that charges tiered second and third rates, how does that
18 work with hospitals? Do they charge the same high rate
19 for excessive use or do they take into consideration that
20 they have a large number of patients and staff using the
21 facilities?
22 We turn off all our lights when we leave
23 the rooms. We often unplug appliances from the wall when
24 not in use. We're cold in the winter, hot in the summer,
25 and in fact, our usage in the summer is very, very low.
CSB REPORTING
[phone]
600 HEIDTPublic
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1 I should have brought the paper with me, but I believe
2 that we run less than one-fourth in the summer of what we
3 use in the winter; however, in spite of being very
4 careful in our energy use for the months of January,
5 February and March, we have been charged in the last few
6 years roughly $500 a month, once again, for me to use my
7 snow coat in the kitchen, and we are on even pay and so
8 that does help us a little bit.
9 I believe this legislation was put in
10 place to encourage conserving electricity. We were in
11 the process of adding insulation to our older, less
12 well-insulated home and replacing windows and doors. The
13 rate increases have in effect prevented us from doing so.
14 Our money goes all to pay the higher second and third
15 tier electricity rates, keeping us from making the
16 improvements we hoped. In our view, this legislation
17 wi thout provisions for cases with all electrical homes or
18 occupancy size is neither just, nor efficacious, at least
19 in our case, for the purpose in which it was intended.
20 I ask you, therefore, to allow for these
21 considerations to be implemented, you know, considered as
22 part of the billing rate and my suggestion would be that
23 somehow there might be a way to work around that so that
24 we don't have to pick between buying groceries or heating
25 the homes and I thank you for your time.
CSB REPORTING
[phone]
601 HEIDT
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1 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Let's see if there
2 are any questions for you. Ms. Nordstrom.
3 MS. NORDSTROM: None from Idaho Power.
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Klein.
5 MR. KLEIN: None from the Staff.
6 COMMISSIONER SMITH: How about from the
7 Commission.
8 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: No.
9 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Commissioner
10 Kj ellander.
11
12 EXAINATION
13
14 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:
15 Q Ms. Heidt, are you aware of Idaho Power IS
16 incentive programs for some of the energy efficiency
17 programs that they offer for residential customers?
18 A I am aware of the one with insulation
19 where we can get up to a third of what we spend on
20 insulation back, I am aware of that. I can go and buy
21 the insulation cheaper, you know, and lay it myself than
22 I can getting only a third of it back through that
23 program, but I still have to have the money to do it and
24 if it takes all my money to pay the electric bills, I'm
25 not able to do that very easily.
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602 HEIDT (Com)
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1 Q So you've looked into some of the various
2 incentive programs that might be available?
3 A We have looked, but there didn't seem to
4 be anything that would actually help us very much.
5 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Okay, thank
6 you.
7 COMMISSIONER SMITH: We appreciate you
8 taking the time to come down tonight and express your
9 concerns to us and we appreciate that.
10 THE WITNESS: Thank you.
11 (The witness left the stand.)
12 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Stephen Heidt.
13
14 STEPHEN HEIDT,
15 appearing as a public witness, having been first duly
16 sworn, testified as follows:
EXAMINATION
BY MR.KLEIN:
Q Good afternoon.
A Good afternoon.
Q Would you please state your full name and
spell your last name for the record?
A Stephen Christian Heidt, H-e-i-d-t.
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[phone]
603 HEIDT
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1 Q And what is your mailing address?
2 A 4889 Edison Road, Marsing, Idaho.
3 Q And you are a customer of Idaho Power;
4 correct?
5 A That is correct.
6 Q If you have a statement, please make it.
7 A Thank you. I am here to present concerns.
S I am by trade a school teacher, and according to -- you
9 know, school teachers don't make bad money, they don't
10 make good money, 'but I make about as much my parents do
11 on their retirement. Their two retirements combined is
12 what my pay is per month. As my wife just testified,
13 they live next door in their house and I've had some
14 questions about usage, because the law, it seems to me,
15 should provide for usage either of a household, a
16 packaged deal or have another option of some way
17 determining expanded household because of the size of our
1S household. I don't feel like that it i S been taken into
19 consideration, so it would seem to me that Idaho Power
20 should have optional plans for this so that they could
21 say there's a flat rate option where you take the average
22 size, the average household in the State of Idaho and
23 people can either accept that option or if they've got
24 more people than that average household size that they
25 could opt for something larger by identifying themselves
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(20S) 890-5198
604 HEIDT
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1 wi th their Idaho State tax return or something like that.
2 That seems reasonable to me.
3 I also feel like when the last bill
4 increase, the rate increase was passed that it wasnl t
5 taken into fair enough consideration and we i ve been
6 paying an excessive amount, because, as my wife already
7 mentioned, my parents live in a house and they pay the
8 same rate and they never cross out of their tier because
9 there i s only two of them, but in my house there i s eight
10 of us and we i ve never managed to keep it under that
11 amount. Even in the summer months when our usage is way
12 down, we i re still into the third tier. We are always in
13 the third tier. It doesn i t matter what we do to save
14 money. We i re always in that third tier, and I feel like
15 the legislation that i s coming up should not only remedy
16 that situation, but it should also try and go back and
17 give some type of remedy for the past few years, because
18 welve just been hit really hard with this, and so what I
19 think they ought to do is -- Ilm just trying to come with
20 ideas, but if they could fix the usage for the future and
21 also cover the past few years and backdate it to the past
22 few years and people could request not a refund of cash,
23 but, like, a refund of kilowatt-hour credits or something
24 like that, because we i ve just been really hit hard with
25 this and I know that other people have, too, and in all
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605 HEIDT
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1 actuality, we started looking into this a year ago, a
2 year-and-a-half ago, when we first got hit by it and we
3 were very active in calling Idaho Power and the Public
4 Utilities Commission, and finally here about three or
5 four months ago they said well, this upcoming legislative
6 session you need to come to this hearing that we i re at
7 right now, but it took us a year to find out this
8 information.
9 We were very active in trying to find
10 these things out and we have just now in the last few
11 months discovered that we could come and testify at these
12 hearings here and ask questions and put forth ideas and
13 things like that, and so the information, though it IS
14 readily accessible, it took us a year the find it out
15 being active and looking for it, and though readily
16 accessible, itls not easily findable. People arenlt
1 7 divulging it as well as I feel that it should be, so
18 thank you.
19 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you, sir.
20 Let's see if there are any questions for you.
21 Ms. Nordstrom.
22 MS. NORDSTROM: None from Idaho Power.
23 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Klein.
24 MR. KLEIN: None.
25 COMMISSIONER SMITH: From the Commission?
CSB REPORTING
[phone]
606 HEIDT
Public
.1 It i S probably little comfort and certainly not what
2 you i re asking for, but I do note in the rate design for
3 the settlement that i s been proposed by the parties, there
4 is no increase in the third block and the non-summer
5 increase is a percent less than the summer, so a little
6 bit of what you said got heard.
7 THE WITNESS: Okay.
8 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you, sir,
9 appreciate you being here.
10 (The witness left the stand.)
11
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COMMISSIONER SMITH: John Mignanelli.
12
13 JOHN MIGNANELLI,
14 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn,
15 was examined and testified as follows:
16
17 EXAMINATION
18
19 BY MR. KLEIN:
20 Good afternoon. Would you please stateQ
21 your full name and spell your last name for the record?
22 John Mignanelli, M-i-g-n-a-n-e-l-l-i, 159A
23 Oakhurst Way, Boise, 83709.
24 And you're an Idaho Power customer?Q
25 Yes, sir.A
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[phone]
607 MIGNANELLI
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1 Q Please make your statement.
2 A Okay, some of the information I was going
3 to relay has been said before by some folks, so Ilm not
4 going to repeat it, but instead, I have done some
5 research in my short period of time and I find some
6 interesting things. You know, we live in sort of a
7 recession right now. You know, the State of Idaho has
8 laid off 500 people, their hours are reduced. I worked
9 there for 26 years, so Ilm still in contact with many of
10 them. HP has had layoffs. Other maj or corporations here
11 locally have laid off, HP somewhere between 500 to 1,000.
12 Three years ago many employees there were reduced by 10
13 percent on their wages. SuperValu has had layoffs, other
14 governmental entities such as counties, cities. I could
15 continue; however, I find that Idaho Power is an
16 exception.
17 Their employees luckily have been
18 receiving steady increases and bonuses at the management
19 level, two to three percent, even as of this particular
20 year, 2011. Their average salary of an Idaho Power
21 employee, and some of this is public, some of this is in
22 the Department of Labor, some of this I i ve gotten from
23 confidential sources, theirs is double about of the Idaho
24 living wage. Now, I went over to see what Mr. Lamont
25 makes who is the CEO of IDACORP. He makes a lot of
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[phone]
608 MIGNANELLI
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1 money. In fact, what he makes per hour with compensation
2 is more than what the average Idaho worker makes per
3 month.
4 I went over to see what other CEO i S make
5 that work around the country. I looked at 25 different
6 utili ties in various states of the country and I find
7 that Mr. Lamont i s salary is disportionate to the number
8 of customers that Idaho Power has. Idaho Power has
9 approximately 400,000. I think it i S in the brochure I
10 got. They have almost 3,300 megawatts of power they
11 supply, so I looked at companies that are similar to that
12 and then also exceed that. Duke Power, for example, has
13 11 times as much megawatts of power for their customers,
14 yet their CEO makes only about 2.5 times what Mr. Lamont
15 makes, and I'm not going to go over with a lot of
16 different figures to bore you.
17 I looked at companies that were similar to
18 Idaho Power in usage and power and their CEO i S don i t make
19 close to what Mr. LaMont makes. In fact, the Northeast
20 Utili ty Company who owns Public Service of New Hampshire
21 and other utilities, Connecticut Natural Gas, he makes
22 about double what Mr. Lamont makes, but yet, has 2.1
23 million customers. First Energy Company out of Ohio, for
24 example, has 24,000 megawatts of power. Six months ago
25 the CEO said we i re going to cut all employees i wages by
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1 25 percent until we i re done with the recession in this
2 country. I i d love to see Idaho Power do the same or at
3 least freeze their wages.
4 Now, I can sit here for another hour
5 because of all the research I i ve done and complain about
6 Idaho Power, but I think they i re a very professional
7 company. Overall I haven i t had any complaints. Once I
8 had to scream real loud and they came to my rescue and
9 fixed it. My recommendation is simply to what some of
10 the other folks have mentioned, reduce customers of up to
11 1,000 kilowatts per month by four percent or whatever.
12 Increase the customers over 3,000 kilowatts per hour and
13 defini tely do not increase the customer usage of -- the
14 minimum bill from 4 to $5.00. Again, it i S hurting the
15 fixed income, students, the part-time workers, temporary
16 workers and such that don i t have the means to support
17 such increases.
18 COMMISSIONER SMITH: I i m taking notes.
19 Thank you. Let i s see if there are any questions.
20 Ms. Nordstrom.
21 MS. NORDSTROM: No questions.
22 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Klein.
23 MR. KLEIN: No questions.
24 COMMISSIONER SMITH: From the Commission?
25
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1 EXAINATION
2
3 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:
4 Q Ilm just curious, the --
5 A Sources?
6 Q No, no, Ilm not going to quiz you on your
7 sources, and I know you spent time on it and appreciate
8 that. The issue in which you contacted the utility and
9 they showed up and helped out, what was that?
10 A Well, they tore up my street in front of
11 me once and then seven months later they tore up my
12 driveway and even though I was standing there and told
13 them to back off, the sprinkler, they tore up that. They
14 did a real mess. It was their subcontractors and I
15 talked to -- I contacted some folks at Idaho Power and
16 they quickly came over to rectify it and they admitted
17 their mistake, even though it was subcontractors of the
18 Company. It wasn i t Idaho Power employees and they
19 finished it and made everything good again.
COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Okay, thank
21 you.
22
23
24.25
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611 MIGNANELLI (Com)
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3 BY COMMISSIONER SMITH:
4 Q So I guess my question is when you looked
5 at your CEO comparisons, did you include stock options or
6 other non-cash?
7 A Yes, I did. I did, yes, malam. I looked
8 at the total compensation package. I wrote down all the
9 lovely CEO names and I looked at figures from 2007
10 through 2010 and whatever I could find on reuters. com and
11 other online sources with my search engines, yes.
12 Q Because I know Mr. Jim Rogers at Duke and
13 I think he makes a bundle of money..14 A Yes, Mr. Rogers, 23 years at Duke Power,
15 8.8 million.
16 Q I think that was just the cashing in of
17 his options.
18
19
20
21
A Well --
Q But that iS neither here nor there.
A Okay.
COMMISSIONER SMITH: It i S my personal
22 opinion that nobody is worth that much money, but I don i t
23 rule the world, so we appreciate all your work and your
24 appearance here tonight. Thank you for coming..25 THE WITNESS: Thank you very much.
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(The witness left the stand.)
COMMISSIONER SMITH: Louis Landry.
4 LOUIS LANDRY,
5 appearing as a public witness, having been duly sworn,
6 was examined and testified as follows:
11
7
8
9
10 BY MR. KLEIN:
Q
EXAMINATION
Good afternoon. Could you go ahead and
12 state your full name, spell your last name and give us
13 your mailing address?
14 A
15 Idaho.
16
20
21
22
Q
17 record?
18 A
Louis\ Landry, 211 East 33rd Street, Boise,
And could you spell your last name for the
L-a-n-d-r-y.
And you are a customer of Idaho Power?
I am.
Please give your statement.
Okay, I'm also a stockholder and Ild just
23 like to for a moment explain why I i m here. I i ve always
19 Q
24 thought of the PUC as sort of an insider game and I had
25
A
Q
A
no idea how consumer friendly you might be and I have
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1 marveled, I have a friend, his name is John Weber, I
2 think you may know John because he i s been a long-time
3 citizen advocate and prepared technical testimony, and as
4 I i ve gotten to know John and been inspired by him in
5 terms of his energy conservation and his interest in how
6 we produce and sustain a society with energy, I i ve heard
7 more about the PUC, and John called me from Minneapolis.
8 He went to Minneapolis because of a very serious illness
9 of a family member and was concerned that his position
10 wouldn i t be represented here, even though he submitted an
11 e-mail, and I said well, John, IIllgive ita try, so I
12 went to your website and looked up his testimony and
13 thought I i d come down to at least underline one or two
14 key points , and then, if I might, just one or two
15 observations about being here.
16 I did show up earlier today and certainly,
17 I appreciate the Commissioners of what a long day it is
18 and I appreciate the technicality of the work. I
19 appreciate when I came in, I got this document and I will
20 read it and would like to learn more about this as a
21 citizen i s responsibility. The key part of John's written
22 e-mail testimony that he submitted was regarding the 25
23 percent increase in the residential customer charge, and
24 although the amount in absolute dollars is very small, I
25 was affected by the AARP testimony, and I had cut out
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1 this article that appeared in the newspaper about
2 ratepayers deserve an advocate of their own. I don't
3 know if you saw that editorial in The Sta tesman. I
4 thought it was very respectful of the Commission in the
5 sense of saying that it i S not your job to advocate, you
6 have to adjudicate or you i re arbiters, not advocates as
7 it said in the editorial, and when I thought about that,
8 it just seemed to me for people of very, very low income
9 who are really struggling that the percentage increase is
10 unseemly. It's just unseemly and it doesn i t seem fair.
11 Even though it's a very small dollar
12 amount, I was just thinking if there was a really strong
13 advocate position, would it have been different and would
14 the whole thing, the tiers look different and family size
15 be considered, so I know that that wasn i t in John's
16 testimony. I feel like I've taken care of my friendship
17 responsibility for John and honored that, and then just
18 on my own, I just feel like as I listen here and seeing
19 how people are struggling, the importance of having a
20 citizen advocate here in the state to come here and have
21 as much umph and have the technical information that
22 would be with the large organizations that have, you
23 know, rate examiners and attorneys on their staffs to
24 advocate for the interests of the large Industrial
25 Customers, et cetera.
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1 I also, you know, it i s just ironic, I
2 wrote in my notes executive compensation. As a
3 stockholder who is now starting to attend stockholder
4 meetings, I get concerned about executive compensation
5 and I have no idea how the PUC folds that in, and that i s
6 something I i d like to learn about, just sort of how do we
7 help our corporations be responsible citizens. I i ve been
8 mostly interested in how they are responsible in terms of
9 the kinds of power sources that we use and whether or not
10 we could move to more green sustainable power, but it
11 seems to me the whole bit has to be looked at in how it i s
12 all woven together, so those are some of my concerns.
13 I appreciate very much your willingness to
14 have this kind of public hearing for the folks that
15 aren i t intervenors, who aren i t technical experts, and
16 maybe we can be off the mark on some of our issues, but I
17 think it i S part of the learning process and I think I i 11
18 do my end to try to learn a little bit more about how you
19 operate and how we can bring our concerns as we look at
20 power generation, and I just would wrap up with one
21 thing.
22 I was deeply influenced by a poet by the
23 name of Gary Snyder and as he was talking to citizens, he
24 said, we should know about our watershed. We should know
25 where our water comes from, and we should know where our
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1 water goes when we i ve used it, and I i m inspired in Boise
2 that there's a lot of people who care very deeply about
3 our water and really work at protecting it, and I think
4 we i re doing a pretty good job in Boise and there i s a lot
5 of folks that stand up for water, and it seems to me that
6 we have to take that and take it further and that we have
7 to know where our juice comes from, that the citizens
8 have to know where their juice comes from and I do little
9 informal surveys.
10 I go to the Y and see folks at the Y and I
11 ask them, I say, where do you get your juice? Where does
12 it come from? And when you ask most people, they think
13 Idaho gets its juice from hydropower and solar and some
14 have said nuke. None have said coal, and it's 40
15 percent, as I understand it, and above of coal and itls
16 off shored. You know, itls off in Wyoming and itls in
17 Utah and it i S in Oregon --
18 COMMISSIONER SMITH: And Montana and
19 Washington and Nevada.
20 THE WITNESS: So, you know, I think that
21 responsible citizenship now means know your juice, and I
22 have felt -- and that i s why I have become a stockholder
23 of Idaho Power and why I think more of us have to be here
24 and talk you all about that sort of thing, so I
25 appreciate your work, and I know I i ve been a little bit
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17
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1 off the subj ect of this rate case, but I appreciate the
2 opportuni ty.
3 COMMISSIONER SMITH: The Commission
4 appreciates your participation and interest and we try
5 mightily on our public outreach efforts to engage people
!
6 in what we know is a very important topic for everybody
7 in the state.
8 Let i s see if there are any questions for
9 you. Ms. Nordstrom.
10 MS. NORDSTROM: No, no questions.
11 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Mr. Klein.
12 MR. KLEIN: No.
13 COMMISSIONER SMITH: From the Commission.
14 COMMISSIONER REDFORD: No.
15 COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Yes.
EXAINATION
19 BY COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER:
20 Q Have you seen a little small publication
21 that was put together by the Idaho Strategic Energy
22 Alliance last year and I believe the Commission also
23 helped pay for that publication, and I hope that Gene
24 just went to grab a few copies, have you seen that
25 specific little publication? It has a lot of the little
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618 LANDRY (Com)
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17
18
19
1 facts that you just mentioned, just sort of add to the
2 quiz when you go to the Y. Is that the West Y or the
3 Downtown Y?
4 A It i s the Downtown Y and it i S also on the
5 street corners and at the coffee shops. I i ve been
6 interested in where people have their magical thinking
7 about where this power comes from and who paid the price
8 for it in terms of the air quality or whatever.
9 Q If in fact Gene actually went to get a
10 copy of that and if not, I i ve got one in my desk, after
11 you take a look at it, if you could maybe just backtrack
12 wi th Gene and just give us your thoughts and ideas about
13 whether or not it has some value and what you think may
14 need to be there from a consumer IS perspective. Thank
15 you.
A Great, I will.
COMMISSIONER KJELLANDER: Thank you.
THE WITNESS: Thank you very much.
COMMISSIONÈR SMITH: I guess I'd just add
20 to that that if you were here earlier today, you probably
21 noticed there was a Mr. Purdy representing the Community
22 Action Partnership Association of Idaho, and they are a
23 regular participant in hearings and other proceedings
24 before the Commission representing the interests of low
25 income customers, so at least that segment of the public
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619 LANDRY (Com)
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1 is separately represented in most of the cases here at
2 the Commission.
3 THE WITNESS: Excellent.
4 COMMISSIONER SMITH: And there are many,
5 many ways to get involved. I i m sure that Mr. Fadness of
6 our Staff can help you. Mr. Miller can probably guide
7 you places or Ms. Nordstrom, I i m thinking of the Idaho
8 Power Company IRP process and all sorts of public
9 outreach that the Commission and the regulated entities
10 do to try and get the public engaged in these very
11 important issues, so we appreciate you taking the time to
12 be here tonight.
13 THE WITNESS: Thanks.
14 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Thank you.
15 (The witness left the stand.)
17 else?
COMMISSIONER SMITH: Is there anybody
18
19 real quickly?
MR. KLEIN: Madam Chair, may I approach
20
21
22
COMMISSIONER SMITH: Yes.
MR. KLEIN: Thank you.
23 for a moment?
COMMISSIONER SMITH: Shall we be at ease
24
25
MR. KLEIN: Thank you.
(Pause in proceedings.)
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18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25.
1 COMMISSIONER SMITH: Okay, that brings us
2 to the end of the people who have signed up to testify.
3 If there is anyone else in the room who has come to the
4 conclusion they i d like to make a statement, we'd be happy
5 to hear you now.
6 Seeing no one coming forward, we
7 appreciate the participation and attendance of everyone
8 tonight and the hearing will be adj ourned to reconvene
9 tomorrow morning at 9: 30. Thank you all for coming.
10 (The Hearing recessed at 7: 47 p.m.)
11
12
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