Public Service Commission should be doing more to look out for West Virginians

John Amos E. Power Plant, seen in June 2013, is a coal-fired plant owned and operated by Appalachian Power, a subsidiary of American Electric Power in Winfield, W.Va. (Getty Images)

I am once again asking you to consider how the West Virginia Public Service Commission and policymakers are complicit in hurting your bank accounts, the environment and our futures at the same time.

Let’s take a moment to recall recent requests and decisions concerning American Electric Power and its subsidiaries, Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power, which provide electricity to roughly half of the state.

• In October 2021, the PSC ordered Appalachian Power to do whatever it takes to keep three coal plants open until at least 2040. The plants were facing a 2028 closure unless they made upgrades to meet federal environmental standards. The PSC and its counterparts in Virginia and Kentucky played a game of chicken when it came down to who would pay the biggest burden for the upgrades. West Virginia ratepayers lost. Kentucky refused to pay for some of the upgrades and Virginia agreed later. Price tag: an expected $448 million upon completion, with an initial increase of under a dollar per month.
• At the end of July 2024, the PSC approved an increase of nearly $36 million to help Appalachian Power recoup some of the costs of upgrading its coal plants to be compliant with federal environmental rules. Price tag: an increase of $2.71 for an average residential customer
• In January 2024, the PSC ordered that Appalachian Power could recover $321 million due to high fuel (coal) costs. Price tag: $2.50 per month over the next 10 years, starting Sept. 1.
• In April 2024, Appalachian Power requested another $20.4 million in fuel recovery costs. A hearing on that decision will happen at the PSC on Aug. 12.
• And finally, last week Appalachian Power requested a $265 million rate increase. Price tag: an expected increase of $28.72 per month. Moreover, in their request, they’d like to cut net metering rates for people who own solar panels and sell energy back to the grid, something that Monongahela Power also requested in a recent request to the PSC

A compounding factor in more than one of these cases is the 2021 directive from the PSC that coal plants operate at 69% capacity, even when that power generation is not needed. It was an order that both Appalachian Power and environmental and ratepayer advocates said was absurd.

And those are just matters concerning electric rates, specifically to Appalachian Power. Don’t forget the water and gas increases that we’ve seen in West Virginia.

Many lawmakers in West Virginia would likely tell you that the reasons our rates have been increasing are regulations from the war on coal and that renewables are subsidized by the federal government. Focusing on subsidies for renewables is a way to deflect from the externalized costs that lie in fossil fuel production; the medical bills, lost wages and lost years of life for people who sacrifice their knees, backs and entire bodies in coal mines only to get black lung disease years later. Or the health effects of people who live in the shadows of coal and gas plants, and are everyday afraid of breathing air poisoned by pollutants.

Call me crazy, but I think protecting our groundwater from coal waste spills and leakage is a good thing. Keeping our air and rivers clean from mercury and other toxins from power plant emissions is a positive for every person who lives here.

Another way in which the PSC is complicit in propping up coal-fired plants at the expense of our health and wallets is its pushback against new federal rules that could improve transmission lines, as reported by Mountain State Spotlight this week. A federal agency has issued rules intended to speed up the construction of transmission lines, freeing up a backlog of renewable energy that has been waiting to get on to the grid. The PSC disagrees with experts who say this will lead to reduced power bills.

A recent New York Times story highlights how each state’s power generation has changed over the last 20 years. Many states predominantly relied on coal 20 years ago.

Now, methane gas has made a significant dent in many states’ power grids, keeping costs relatively affordable. But as I’ve written before, our decision makers didn’t allow that to happen here. Power from the sun, wind and water have also made increases in recent years across the country. Meanwhile, West Virginia has stayed steadfastly in support of coal. And we have seen some of the highest electric bill increases because of it.

It’s important for the PSC and our elected officials to know what we know: there are better ways to run our power systems.

You can share your thoughts at the public comment hearing at the PSC in Charleston on Aug. 12. Then on Aug. 15, West Virginians for Energy Freedom is holding a rally outside AEP’s office in Charleston to protest ever-increasing rates.

We have to demand more from our lawmakers ahead of, and during, the 2025 legislative session. We’ll have a new governor and a new slate of lawmakers. Past elected officials’ desire to cling to the past and not embrace cleaner forms of energy are what got us here. Let’s not let the new ones make the same mistakes.

Two approaches the legislature could take are requiring more renewable energy (we became the first state to repeal our renewable goal back in 2015) and reforming the PSC to ensure it has true ratepayer advocates. It could be expanded to more than three commissioners, with at least one having a real background in consumer advocacy.

Currently it seems the main requirement is that no more than two are from the same political party. Commissioners Renee A. Larrick and Charlotte R. Lane (a former lobbyist for utility companies) are registered Republicans. The third, Bill Raney, is the former head of the West Virginia Coal Association and is registered as having no party affiliation.

With Raney’s background in coal and his recent donation to Gov. Jim Justice’s Senate campaign, he strikes me as an independent in name only.

A strong first step to getting our power bills under control should be ensuring that the interests of the commission in charge of regulating industry isn’t captured by those same industries.

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