CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Speaking at the Utah Energy Summit today in Salt Lake City,
Utah, Gov. Dave Freudenthal encouraged policy makers, industry leaders and the
federal government to be honest with citizens about the real costs of moving
toward cleaner energy policy and greenhouse gas management.
“If we are serious about properly addressing this complex issue, we need to
let folks know that it’s going to cost money,” Freudenthal said. “We need to be
honest that cheap energy is likely to be a thing of the past, and as a practical
matter, offloading carbon costs to the environment is coming to an end as well.”
Freudenthal commented on the recent discussion of California’s clean energy
policies and said that it’s easy for states to be considered more “green” when
they’re not dealing with the consequences of producing oil and gas.
“I don’t mean to pick on Gov. Schwarzenegger, but he needs to understand that
natural gas is not free of an environmental burden. That burden hits hardest on
Wyoming’s habitat and wildlife,” Freudenthal said.
The Utah Energy Summit brought together governors from various regions of the
United States to strategize about how cutting-edge, next-generation technologies
are re-shaping America's energy policy and its future and the need for clear,
thoughtful federal policy.
The governor joined several other governors in a roundtable discussion this
afternoon focused on strengthening domestic energy security. Also present at the
roundtable were Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana and Gov. Jon Huntsman, Jr. of
Utah. Two other governors, Jim Gibbons of Nevada and Joe Manchin of West
Virginia, joined the conference via telecast.
The governors discussed how new technologies could help America lessen its
dependence on foreign energy supplies.
“We seem to be at a point of confluence where climate change and energy
security have gained traction with the public, the marketplace and the
Congress,” Freudenthal said. “But in this Whitewater environment, it’s hard to
tell whether people are just slapping the water with their oars or actually
paddling the boat forward.”
New technologies are part of the solution to the nation’s energy security
challenges. But Freudenthal said it’s time for a serious debate about which are
the most feasible, followed by deliberate actions to move the nation forward to
actually use the novel processes that now only exist in laboratories and in
“bench scale” models.
“We need to move the technologies from bench scale to the point where they
can be financed and deployed on a regular basis,” he said. “We have potential
technologies out there, but we need to move them up to the point where people as
a matter of course deploy these technologies.”
Developing projects from beginning to end is another critical part of
improving the nation’s energy supplies. For example, before providing incentives
for companies to build wind turbines, the government needs to take into account
how long it takes to build them and consider whether there is sufficient
transmission infrastructure to get that power to market.
The federal government should create a basic road map for the development of
renewable energy resources and for new technologies like carbon sequestration
and coal gasification. But the federal government should also know that its
basic plan must be subject to change as new information emerges and is
understood.
A true discussion of how to improve the nation’s energy security will require
an investment on the scale similar to what it cost to put a man on the moon,
Freudenthal said.
“Sometimes doing the right thing comes with pain,” he said. “But energy
security and the environment are too important not to do this the right way.”
February 6, 2007
Wyoming wants Qwest, others to develop common response to outages
Published - The Associated Press
CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The Wyoming Public Service Commission said Tuesday it wants
the state's telephone companies to devise a common response to service outages,
and to include the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security in their planning.
Last summer, an outage left much of the state without 911 service for several
hours.
"The idea is to make sure that whatever happens in the future is
pre-planned," Steve Oxley, chief counsel for the commission, said. "You need to
have most of the contact information in place before things happen."
Jeff Hubbard, public policy director for Qwest Communications International
Inc., said the company had installed a backup system to prevent similar
situations from occurring.
"Now we may get a fiber cut, but the diverse circuits should alleviate an
outage," Hubbard said. "We hope it will never happen again."
The commission spent the morning discussing its investigation into the Aug. 1
outage, which occurred when a contractor working to extend service to a school
in Cheyenne cut Qwest's main fiber artery. Cheyenne was not affected, but most
of the state - including Casper, Gillette, Jackson and Cody - lost 911 service
for at least several hours.
Some cell phone and long distance service also was interrupted.
Hubbard said he had no problem with any of the commission's recommendations.
"Basically they made comments on things we've already got in place, and have had
in place for some time, it's just a reinforcement of that," Hubbard said.
Oxley said the commission hoped to issue a formal order in a month or so.
"The commission determined additional work needed to be done on the
efficient, accurate, rapid engagement of local responders," Oxley said.
"Everybody needs to work together - there's a realization that there's an
interconnectedness in the system and a lot of people depend on each other."
Michael S. Fox, representative of RT Communications, Dubois Telephone
Exchange Inc. and Range Telephone Cooperative, who attended the meeting, agreed.
"It's a joint effort," Fox said. "We were impacted by that cut, but our
customers will benefit from any Qwest facility improvements as well."
After the incident, Qwest said it planned to upgrade its 911 system in
Wyoming to prevent a repeat of the outage. The company's Wyoming president said
they would add a layer of redundancy to the fiber cable system that would create
two independent paths for 911 calls; if one path was severed, the other would
continue service, although it would have less capacity.
Commissioner Mary Byrnes said she wanted to make sure the costs of any
repairs and upgrades would be absorbed by the company, not by its customers.
"It's my understanding that the costs of these repairs and improvements will
not be borne by consumers," she said.
Hubbard said that redundant system is now operating and that the company will
not pass the costs of the improvements on to its customers. "That's not gonna
happen," he said.
February 1, 2007
Gas bills may take a tumble
Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
The tropical storms that were predicted in 2005 didn’t materialize. And for
the most part, the winter has been unexpectedly mild.
Those are the key reasons that Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power customers
probably will get a break on their natural-gas heating bills.
On Wednesday, the Cheyenne energy utility submitted an application at the
Wyoming Public Service Commission. It seeks the authority to drop natural-gas
prices starting March 1.
The commission is expected to meet sometime this month to consider the
request.
The proposed decrease would drop prices nearly to the level they were at last
fall before the winter increase was approved.
For homes, the change is expected to be about 44 percent less, dropping a
$66.45 bill based on 6 dekatherms of use to $36.86.
For small businesses, the proposal would drop a monthly bill of $385.33 for
39 dekatherms to $193.79, nearly a 50 percent drop.
“Whenever you can save money it’s a good thing,” Cheyenne resident Bart
McClellan said Wednesday.
He was on track to save some money anyway: He replaced the windows in his
home last summer with more efficient models.
And if it weren’t for the bitterly cold weather in the last month, his
natural-gas usage would have gone down more than it has.
“This is the coldest it has been in about six years,” he said. “The snow
hasn’t melted from that first storm in December.”
Cheyenne Light vice president Rick Kaysen said when the forecasting was done
on the prices between Oct. 1, 2006 and Sept. 30, 2007, factors such as
hurricanes and icy weather were factored in.
“Market prices did not materialize as they were forecast,” he said.
With good natural-gas production and storage numbers, prices did not rise as
they might have and, in fact, have been dropping.
By state law, all utilities are permitted to pass on changes in cost of
electricity and natural gas to their customers after a review by state
regulators.
Cheyenne Light has sought increases or decreases once a year for electricity
and natural gas based on annual forecasts. If prices change radically, officials
seek an out-of-period adjustment as they are doing now.
Kaysen said the company is considering seeking adjustments more often,
perhaps twice or four times a year. A more frequent schedule could moderate the
increases or decreases sought.
But seeking changes more often is not expected to alter the natural-gas
market’s volatility.
Kaysen said a number of customers apparently are using less gas, whether
through setting their thermostats lower or installing new windows or insulation.
“Several years ago when we looked at the average use, residential customers
were averaging 9 dekatherms a month; they are now down to 7 dekatherms a month,”
he said.
December 17, 2006
Questions linger about telecom bill
Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - Changing the state's telecommunications law is no easy task.
The world of telecom is sophisticated and complicated, and technology
advances make it more so every day.
On Monday, a state legislative committee will take a final look at a draft
bill that it has been working with since last spring so that it can be
considered next month when the Wyoming Legislature convenes.
The bill that the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions
Interim Committee is working on would essentially lift regulation of phone
companies in Wyoming and lessen their reporting requirements to state
regulators. It also would lift the mandate that prices charged to customers must
be based on the cost of providing service to them.
At the same time, it would put a cap on the price of having a home phone
without the bells and whistles - essential telephone service - and it would
encourage phone companies to lower those prices.
"We would like to get closer to our competition," Mike Ceballos, president of
Qwest in Wyoming, said. Ceballos said his company supports the bill as it stands
going into Monday's committee meeting.
"We're not asking to be deregulated. If a customer has a problem with us, we
would still have to go before the Public Service Commission," he said.
The Wyoming Public Service Commission regulates some aspects of telephone
service in Wyoming.
Competition is an important consideration for Qwest, which is considered the
incumbent carrier in Wyoming. As the descendant of the Baby Bell system that
resulted in the breakup of AT&T, Qwest operates the bulk of wireline telephone
infrastructure in the state. Qwest provides retail service to state residents
and businesses, and it provides wholesale service to competing phone companies.
Because of that, it is subject to regulation, where its competitors are not.
Ceballos said Qwest faces competition from wireless phone carriers; cable
television, which also can offer phone service over its network; and Internet
service providers through which consumers can get phone service via
voice-over-Internet protocol.
He said those companies have more flexibility in offering service to
customers.
"Right now, I can't lower my prices without giving 30 days' notice," Ceballos
said. That means competitors can beat Qwest to the punch.
But the draft bill has detractors who don't see it in quite the same way.
Among them is Chris Robisch, spokesman for the Riverton-based Contact
Communications. His company is a wholesale customer of Qwest, paying to use
Qwest's lines to provide service to its customers - Internet service providers
Wyoming.com and OneWest.net are two of them, and they reach 32,000 computer
users in the state.
Robisch said he finds three critical flaws in the bill:
It contains no price controls, and wholesale prices have already increased
this year; that probably means that retail prices also will increase.
The Public Service Commission's role in regulating anti-competitive behavior
is removed.
It allows predatory pricing by incumbent carriers.
Robisch said as the bill is now written, it contains several loopholes that
would allow some phone companies to get around the prohibition on price
increases. One is to apply for an increase before the bill, if passed, would
become law.
Robisch said his concern is that it will allow Qwest to squash the little
Wyoming telephone companies, and that will mean lost jobs.
While he acknowledged that a lot of hard work has been put into this bill by
both committee members and telephone companies, he said it appears that
consideration of facts is losing out to political philosophy - specifically the
idea that any regulation is bad for business.
He said at Monday's Corporations Committee meeting, he plans to offer up an
alternate bill that offers price flexibility, as well as a cap, and it removes
some of the regulatory burden that phone companies face.
"Wyoming may be ready for some deregulation, but definitely not total
deregulation," he said.
December 5, 2006
Power bills may drop - Proposal would trim monthly rates by $10.99
Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power filed an electric rate decrease proposal
Monday that will come as a nice gift this holiday season: an average monthly
reduction of $10.99 for residential customers.
"This is a significant reduction for our customers," said Rick Kaysen, vice
president of regulatory affairs at Cheyenne Light. "So this, from a customer
perspective, is good news."
The average residential use projection is based on a monthly consumption of
664 kilowatt hours.
The typical small-business customer, using 1,003 kilowatt hours, can expect
to see a $14.31 monthly reduction.
These estimates are based on an overall decrease in forecast costs of
electric generation and transmission of $14 million for the year. The last such
significant decrease, Kaysen said, came on Jan. 1, 2004, when a $5.3 million
adjustment was made. Kaysen filed the request with the Wyoming Public Service
Commission on Monday. The commission is likely to consider the proposal in the
next week or two, said PSC Chairman Steve Furtney.
Furtney said he couldn't comment on the proposal's chances of acceptance,
since he hadn't had a chance to look over it or hear arguments for or against
it.
"But generally people are favorable toward a decrease," he said, "the only
exception being if someone looks at it and thinks it may not be (as big a)
decrease as they think is warranted."
If passed in the coming weeks, the rates would become effective on Jan. 1.
Last year also saw a small decrease, but it did not translate into a
significant change for customers, Kaysen said.
The cost drop represents a decrease in the price charged by Cheyenne Light's
suppliers. The adjustment is a dollar-for-dollar pass-through of those prices,
Kaysen said. They take into account both the cost of producing the energy and
the cost of transmitting it to Cheyenne from Colorado.
The driving force behind the change, he said, is the cost of natural gas on
the wholesale market, which can be volatile. This year's forecast for the price
of natural gas is significantly below last year's and also significantly lower
than anticipated in late summer and early fall of this year.
In addition, because natural-gas prices in the past year were lower than were
forecast last December, Cheyenne Light was able to use the accumulated revenue
to help lower rates for the coming year, Kaysen said.
Even though rates will be decreasing, Kaysen said, conservation is still a
good idea to keep power bills even lower.
Customers may still have trouble paying their power bills with the arrival of
winter weather, so Kaysen urged them to look into programs such as the Low
Income Energy Assistance Program created by the state or Energy Share of
Wyoming. A levelized billing program also is available to help customers keep
power bills manageable.
"I'm glad they've done it," said Phillip Galloway, a Cheyenne resident, upon
hearing the news. "Anything that saves me money I'm in favor of."
Galloway did not, however, think it would make a big difference for his
bottom line.
A savings of $10 a month over the five winter months, he said, would be
enough to cover about two extra restaurant meals.
September 29, 2006
Natural gas to increase 43.5 percent
The Wyoming Public Service Commission gave interim approval to a $15 million
pass-through of costs to Cheyenne Light customers.
Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
Effective Sunday, customers of Cheyenne Light Fuel and Power will pay 43.5
percent more for natural gas.
"Supply is flat, while demand remains in an upswing," Rick Kaysen, vice
president for regulatory affairs at Cheyenne Light, said when asked about the
reason for the rise in natural-gas prices.
He added that older gas wells were being depleted and that although new wells
were being brought on line, their production was not comparable to their
predecessors.
The Wyoming Public Service Commission gave interim approval to a $15 million
pass-through of costs to Cheyenne Light customers.
Under state law, energy companies can pass through to customers changes in
the cost of natural gas, both up and down. In the case of Cheyenne Light, the
pass-through is on a dollar-for-dollar basis, meaning that the increased price
does not equate into an additional profit for the company. The interim approval
allows the fee increase to take place while giving the commission the
flexibility to terminate the fee change pending continued discussions between
the Office of Consumer Advocate and Cheyenne Light.
"The Office of Consumer Advocate is not here to oppose this," said Denise
Parrish, the deputy administrator for that office. "We have a number of
unanswered questions at this time."
One issue Parrish brought to commissioners was the impact on customers that
stems from annual increases. Other energy companies in Wyoming engage in rate
changes on a quarterly basis, Parrish said, adding that a change that had
accrued over 12 months could place a drastic burden on customers.
Kaysen responded that Cheyenne Light has been responsive to changes in the
cost of natural gas in the past, coming before the commission to ask for changes
in rates beyond just the annual change. He pointed to the rate change that took
place May 1 that represented a 53 percent decrease for most customers.
"We do utilize that provision of filing out of period," Kaysen said.
Under the new rate that begins this weekend, an average residential unit that
uses 7 dekatherms in a month could anticipate a bill of $75.29 - an increase of
$22.94 from the current rate. A small business that typically used 40 dekatherms
would see its bill rise by $131.10 to $394.77 a month.
Assuming no major changes in the market, this rate would be effective through
Sept. 30, 2007.
Compared to the entire previous 12 months, the new rates would represent a
monthly bill that was lower by $9 than this time a year ago.
August 18, 2006
Qwest working to avoid another Wyoming 911 outage 9 days ago Qwest workinng to
avoid another Wyoming 911 outage
Information from: Casper Star-Tribune
CASPER, Wyo. - Qwest Communications International Inc. officials have
announced plans to upgrade the 911 system that covers much of Wyoming, largely
to prevent a repeat of an Aug. 1 outage that left much of the state without 911
service for hours.
Denver-based Qwest plans to add a layer of redundancy to the fiber cable
system but will not increase capacity, according to Mike Ceballos, Qwest
president for Wyoming.
"I'm very excited about the solution," Ceballos said. "If you look forward,
this will really help us address specifically what's happened and put us in a
much better situation."
The state Public Service Commission (PSC), meanwhile, planned a formal
investigation into the outage. The process will be "fairly intensive" and could
include hearings and requests for data from Qwest, said Steve Oxley, secretary
and chief counsel for the PSC.
The Aug. 1 outage interrupted 911 service to about 134,000 of the fewer than
200,000 phone lines served by Qwest in Wyoming. The outage occurred around 3:30
p.m. and service was restored by midnight.
The outage happened when a contractor working to extend service to a school
in Cheyenne cut Qwest's main fiber artery.
Ceballos said it remained unclear whether the Qwest contractor was at fault
or if One Call of Wyoming, the utility locator service, made the error.
"Clearly, in that case, someone will become accountable for that," he said.
It wasn't the first time Wyoming lost 911 service.
A rancher in northern Wyoming drilled through the same fiber line while
making a fence on Oct. 31, 1999, causing a large outage. Qwest and local
emergency coordinators have since improved the system, but those efforts proved
insufficient to stop another large outage.
Ceballos said work on the latest upgrade should begin next week and wrap up
by the end of September.
Currently the 911 delivery system flows in a single direction around the
state. When a break occurs, all downstream customers lose service.
The upgrade will redirect half of the circuit in the opposite direction,
creating two independent paths for 911 calls. Qwest officials say that if one
path is severed, the other would continue service, although it would have less
capacity.
Ceballos said simultaneous cuts in both circuits would be very unlikely.
"This doesn't mean there will never be a failure," he said. "It never
eliminates that something couldn't happen with a single office or a spur, but
it's just going to take down the probability to a very low level."
July 28, 2006
Wind firm first signee for green power
Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle
CHEYENNE - As it happens, the first customer to sign up for Cheyenne Light,
Fuel and Power's renewable energy program is a renewable energy company.
TMA Global Wind Energy Systems Chairman and founder Ron Taylor said he signed
up the first the day he learned about it.
"It was absolutely appropriate that we step to the plate and support the
programs we hope we will be a part of," Taylor said Thursday.
He called Cheyenne Light as soon as he had read about the program in the
Wyoming Tribune-Eagle.
"I thought since we were calling so early, there was a chance we'd be the
first," he said, "but if we weren't first, that was OK too."
The company has been working on developing a vertical-axis turbine for
commercial and residential use.
The company, which is based in Cheyenne, has been working for about a decade
to develop a turbine model that would be commercially viable. Company officials
announced a breakthrough in design in November.
Any day now, that turbine is due to be interconnected with the Cheyenne Light
electric distribution system, and that marks a big milestone for the company.
Cheyenne Light launched the renewable energy program earlier this summer to
give customers - residential and business alike - the chance to support
renewable energy projects.
Under the Renewable Premium Program, customers can subscribe to buy blocks of
renewable energy credits. The money raised through those sales will be used to
support current and future renewable energy projects.
Taylor said his company signed up for 20 blocks, or 2,000 kilowatt hours.
Randy Winkelman, director of customer service for Black Hills Corp.'s retail
companies, said company officials anticipated customers would be interested.
Black Hills Corp. is the parent company of Cheyenne Light.
Company officials agreed to offer the program through an agreement with the
Office of Consumer Advocate that was endorsed by the Wyoming Public Service
Commission as part of Black Hills' request to raise rates to Cheyenne Light
customers.
Rick Kaysen, vice president of regulatory affairs for Cheyenne Light, said a
handful of residential customers also have signed up for the program.
