Dive Brief:
More than three-quarters – 76% – of Americans want elected officials to exercise stronger utility oversight, even though they appear to have little faith in those officials’ ability to prevent rising power bills, according to a new poll and report from consumer advocacy group PowerLines.
PowerLines said only 29% of respondents said they trusted their state governments to protect their interests in dealings with utilities, down from 38% in a similar poll last year. Public sentiment is souring as U.S. utilities filed $9.4 billion in rate increase requests impacting 81 million people just in the first quarter of this year, according to PowerLines.
David Springe, executive director of the National Association of State Utility Consumer Advocates, which was not involved in the report, said that utilities and elected officials are in a tough spot, with industry estimates projecting more than $1 trillion in utility spending over the next five years. “The big spending is just getting started and hasn’t hit the utility rate case cycle yet,” he told Utility Dive.
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