The Alaska Regulatory Commission, which oversees the state's electric utilities, has denied an advocacy group's request for usage data for tens of thousands of individual customers of Chugach Power Association, an Anchorage-based cooperative.
The Renewable Energy Alaska Project (REAP) had asked the commission to compel Chugach to submit the data as it considers the utility's recent proposal to increase rates. REAP said it needed the information to propose alternative new pricing structures to utilities, aimed at conserving natural gas supplies amid the impending natural gas shortage.
Chugach and many other power companies had opposed the request, calling it labor-intensive and a violation of customer privacy. Conservative-leaning advocacy groups and media outlets sympathetic to the oil and gas industry also sounded the alarm about the potential release of the data.
In a ruling last week, Nolan Oliver, an administrative law judge appointed by the commission, denied REAP's request. In his four-paragraph analysis, Oliver said the group had not “sufficiently articulated the benefits of its rate design over the alternatives.”
Oliver said the “burden and expense” of creating the data would outweigh its benefits, citing Chugach's claim that creating the data would require thousands of dollars and more than 100 hours of employee time.
REAP executive director Chris Rose said in an email that his group criticized the decision and Oliver's “failure to provide a valid legal reason to deny his request for development-critical data.” said he was disappointed. Rate designs that encourage natural gas savings as required by state law. ”
“With natural gas shortages looming in Cook Inlet, REAP will continue to work in the public interest to preserve the region's rapidly dwindling local gas supplies,” Rose wrote. “We hope Chugach Electric will work with us to find a way to do that.”
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