The BEC's Call For Oversight of the PSC
We'd prefer a much better approach, but...
To be candid …
We’d prefer not simply legislative oversight of the Louisiana Public Service Commission but its complete dissolution.
A historical artifact, the PSC has outlived its usefulness and has become a vulnerability for the people of our state. End it. Close up shop. Shift its responsibilities elsewhere in government, and in the process streamline those responsibilities to only a few core functions.
(If we must retain some semblance of the agency, place or appoint people who understand energy production, distribution, and consumption on a panel of regulators who have no incentive for personal gain.)
A side benefit in this is the elimination of the threat posed by Davante Lewis and the radical Leftist activists he works for: dissolve the institution they’ve targeted and nearly entirely commandeered for their purposes.
As it stands, utility executives sit before a panel of 5 people who, more times than not, simply vote to “accept the recommendation of staff.” Currently, the PSC is composed of: an insurance salesman, an industrial fluids salesman, a surgeon, an attorney, and a professional politician.
With the exception of the attorney - Eric Skrmetta, who holds a degree in Industrial Technology - none of the commissioners are particularly well-suited to regulate an industry as complex - and essential - as utilities.
“Entergy’s Worst Nightmare”
Davante Lewis’ Campaign Motto
The election of Lewis is all the evidence one should need to realize that this little-known-but-powerful committee of 5 is quite vulnerable to being “hacked,” so to speak: The Leftists’ strategy is to take advantage of the voters ignorance of the PSC, swamp voters with radio spots, online ads, posters, campaign signs, and TV spots so that they pull the lever for you out of recognition alone, and bang! You’re in! Mr. Lewis enjoyed the benefit of $2 million in “Dark Money” spending on his campaign. He simply swamped the incumbent.
Sunday morning I wrote a long Twitter thread with now 8,400 reads…
The election of Davante Lewis to the Louisiana Public Service Commission should raise red flags about the vulnerability of the people of Louisiana to his huge potential for ruining their lives: he is one of only five people who can control the energy you use in your home.
The Public Service Commission is independent. If its members should make errors - or worse, if they intentionally hinder the ability of utility companies to produce and distribute power - citizens have no real recourse. The PSC regulates power production, distribution, and cost.
Davante Lewis ran on an anti-fossil fuel platform and an anti-nuclear power platform. He wants spinning razor blades hoisted into the skies. He wants to cover the landscape with chemically-coated sheets of glass. He trusts batteries to deliver baseload energy to you.
Mr. Lewis is not merely a Democrat Leftist, he's a Marxist activist sitting on the independent 5-person panel that controls your energy. He's a "Trojan Horse" character. And right now, at least two other commissioners are gob-smacked by "green energy" foolishness.
Decisions on the commission are often personal. Commissioner Foster Campbell will openly embarrass a woman in testimony before the commission saying how "pretty" she is. She's there doing serious business. To him, she's merely "pretty." It's not a compliment in that setting.
In last month's meeting, getting personal, Mr. Lewis literally scolded the CEO and the chief counsel of a major utility company because Mr. Lewis had not received some documents. He said he felt "personally disrespected." Scolding adults in a business setting is improper.
With about TWO MILLION DOLLARS in support of his election, Mr. Lewis swamped the incumbent whose seat on the commission he targeted, spending ten times the usual amount spent on races of this kind. His seat was bought for him by environmental activists; he owes them a return.
The Louisiana legislature must reconsider the independence of the Public Service Commission. Mr. Lewis' ability to dismantle the energy structures of our state must be curtailed with serious oversight. He has no training or experience with energy issues. None.
If just one more Leftist activist is elected by a swamping during a campaign, as was Lewis, we can expect serious disruptions and damage to our energy grid and our energy production systems, unlike anything we have ever experienced. Davante Lewis is dangerous, simply put.
Mr. Lewis replied about four hours after I posted:
I answered:
He gets it wrong:
1) The BEC seems to be the PSC's only statewide watchdog who posts on their meetings and news. 2) Mr. Lewis takes negative attention as a compliment; he stays on one's mind as cancer stays on one's mind.
Louisiana's vulnerability to weather - storms activists insist are "more intense because of climate change" - makes this state a WORSE site for solar and wind installations. Spreading sheets of glass across the landscape and erecting spinning blades here makes no sense at all.
Friends, I am making it a part of my life’s work to defend our power production capabilities from the Leftist activists who would deny you the energy liberty you enjoy. Dependable, reliable energy is under threat if Mr. Lewis and his allies are allowed any more control over the utility companies.
For a deeper look at the depth of the problem, please read our coverage of the April PSC meeting, in which Mr. Lewis admitted: “You mention blackouts; we know they are coming.” A comment about which he has never explained himself.
