DENVER – Colorado lawmakers are trying to introduce major changes to how the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) operates. The PUC, consisting of three members appointed by the governor, oversees numerous industries serving the public, from setting rates for your monthly electric bill to regulating Ubers.
New legislation not only extends the PUC for another 11 years, but also introduces an onslaught of changes claiming to protect Coloradans. However, according to critics, it adds additional burdens to an already over-regulated industry, takes transparency away from consumers and gives an already powerful board of unelected bureaucrats, even more power in other areas.
Rideshare companies targeted
House Bill 26-1326, Sunset Public Utilities Commission, is sponsored in the statehouse by Democrats Monica Duran and Jenny Willford and in the Senate by Democrats Robert Rodriguez and Lisa Cutter. The measure takes particular aim at Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft.
Under the bill, these companies will be required to use facial recognition technology to verify that the driver is who he or she claims to be. The rationale for the additional regulation is to combat people pretending to be authorized drivers.
Violators could face misdemeanor or felony charges, up to $1,100, a significant jump from the current $550. It would also force the companies to file an annual safety report.
But the bill does not stop there. It also outlines several other costly regulatory changes to the industry including maintaining additional data on drivers and riders, increased safety documentations, expands background check requirements for certain drivers, and adds increased frequency and newly created standards for the way vehicles are inspected.
Closed door meetings
One major change allows the commission to hold conversations outside of the public purview, a move that would give PUC commissioners more power behind closed doors than any other regulatory body. Another change allows a “municipally owned utility, cooperative electric association, independent transmission developer, or independent power producer” to appeal to the PUC a local government’s decision to deny a land use permit or application for a major electrical or natural gas facility to the utility, essentially giving a state board authority over local land use.
The Colorado Chamber Energy and Environment Council met last month and voted to ask lawmakers that the bill be amended, saying it wanted to “ensure that the bill focuses on improvements to the PUC and does not create overreaching regulations for business.”
The Colorado Accountability Project, led by college physics instructor Cory Gaines, has also chimed in on the bill, specifically pointing to the transparency and land use issues as troubling.
“These are concerning because any measure that lets a government body have less transparency should be concerning,” Gaines said in a post on the organization’s Facebook page. “Let the PUC have a discussion behind closed doors and give us the sanitized, theatrical recreation of that discussion. The one where they come out and publicly rubberstamp something from the backroom.”
As to the land use decision making, Gaines said it’s a slippery slope of expanding the list of people who can bypass local decision making.
Don’t like the opposition you’re getting from locals? Why not take it to three unelected officials who don’t live where your dispute is and don’t have to live with the consequences,” notes Gaines.
Other changes include:
- Authorizes the PUC to direct investor-owned electric utilities to use securitization through the ‘Colorado Energy Impact Bond Act’ as an alternative means of financing and recovering costs.
- Standardizes energy assistance programs so that the qualifications and procedures are the same across Colorado, regardless of company size or financial ability.
- Places a cap on the cost prisons can charge inmates for phone calls and messages.
- Increases the cost of access to Colorado’s “No Call List” from $500 to $1,000.
- Grants the PUC the ability to conduct feasibility studies on water utilities and transportation companies.
The bill does not yet have a date scheduled before the House Energy and Environment Committee.
