PSC candidate holds WG&L listening session

ALBANY, Ga. — A man campaigning for a seat on the state’s Public Service Commission was in Albany Wednesday speaking with an Albany Water, Gas & Light Commission representative to hear the authority’s thoughts and concerns.

Tim Echols said he’s traveling the state, speaking with utilities and other PSC-regulated industries in an effort to hear the issues that are affecting them.

Echols joined Sam Fleet, who is the state leader for the Pickens Plan — a group organized by American oil and gas tycoon T. Boone Pickens that says it is bent on breaking the country’s dependence on foreign oil — in meeting with WG&L officials Wednesday.

“That’s why I’m here,” Echols said. “I’m going around, hearing what your problems are, what your concerns are, so that when I’m elected I can deal with those issues.”

Proponents of alternative energy sources, Echols and Fleet seemed to have merged ideological paths, and each spoke about alternatives to petroleum-based fuels such as nuclear energy and natural gas.

One form of natural gas that Fleet said has been successful in Atlanta in terms of vehicle use has been Compressed Natural Gas.

Currently in use in the Metro Atlanta Rail and Transit Authority bus fleet and in garbage trucks around the metro area, Fleet said she sees a real future in CNG for municipal utilities because of their vehicle fleets.

“Right now, it’s not something that is conducive to consumer use because there just aren’t enough refueling stations to allow for long-distance travel,” Fleet said. “But where it is proving extremely useful is for entities who have fleet vehicles who patrol from a base like refuse trucks and buses.”

Fleet said the benefits of CNG is that it gets comparable fuel mileage to current petroleum fuels while easing dependence on foreign oil and is plentiful in the U.S.

The downside, critics say, is the cost to retrofit gas or diesel engines to run on CNG, but Pickens is in Washington this week to try and drum up support for tax breaks that would help ease that cost.

WG&L’s major concern seems to be the territorial laws that are currently on the books in Georgia that prevent utilities authorities largely from operating electrical service outside of city limits.

Echols said he heard their concerns and will research that law to see if there would be a way to ease restrictions while staying away from deregulation.