Missouri needs independent advocate in utility rate deliberations

AARP is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization for people over the age of 50 with more than 35 million members nationally. One Missourian in every eight -- 750,000 altogether -- is a member of AARP.

For older Americans particularly, ready access to affordable utilities -- safe water, air-conditioning in summer, heat in winter, light after dark and telecommunications for social, health and emergency contact -- is absolutely necessary.

These services can account for more than 6 percent of an average household's monthly income, 23 percent for older Americans with incomes of $10,000 or less.

AARP is convinced that Missouri utility consumers need an independent, fully funded and adequately staffed consumer advocate empowered to initiate investigations and authorized to represent them before state regulators and in the courts.

The General Assembly created the office of the public counsel in 1974 to "represent and protect the interests of the public in any proceeding before or appeal from the public service commission." While the governor has considerable discretion to determine how most executive-branch agencies function, that isn't the case with the office of public counsel. Missouri law clearly states that the public counsel has discretion to decide what he will do and how he will do it, not the governor.

It is understandable if this degree of independence is anathema to the governor and powerful members of the Missouri Legislature. They are lobbied intensively by -- and often receive significant campaign contributions from -- the utilities.

Gov. Matt Blunt doesn't have the authority to fire the president of AmerenUE, Laclede Gas Co. or Missouri Gas Energy. His administration does, however, have the power to fire the public counsel. When John Coffman was fired on May 16, Blunt became the first governor in Missouri history to do so.

The timing and circumstances of this firing have undermined the independence of the office of the public counsel. The governor has apparently placed the interests of the utilities ahead of those of the citizens who elected him.

Missourians pay utility companies more than $5 billion each year. The utilities spend millions themselves trying to get the best deals from the Missouri Public Service Commission when it is deciding rates. Large industrial and commercial customers hire expensive lawyers and experts to do the same for them. The public counsel is allowed a little more than $800,000 a year to represent and protect the interests of the public.

For this small sum, the office has succeeded in securing over $80 million in savings each year for Missouri consumers.

The budget of the public counsel has recently been cut, reducing what was once a staff of 16 down to just 11. AARP calls upon Governor Blunt to restore the independence of the office of public counsel, to fund it fully and to staff it adequately.

We invite him to show Missourians in general, and AARP members in particular, that we can rely upon this administration for a fair deal in utility rates.

John McDonald of Kansas City, Mo., is the Missouri director for AARP.