by Keith Laing
The News Service of Florida
The Florida Public Service Commission elected Art Graham its chairman Tuesday, putting at its helm a commissioner who became a member of the regulatory panel only a few months ago.
Graham, a former Jacksonville City Council member and wastewater engineer by trade, was elected on a motion from longtime PSC Commissioner Lisa Edgar. Appointed to the panel in July, he will replace outspoken former Chair Nancy Argenziano, who resigned Oct. 12 to make endorsements in this year’s political races.
The vote was 3-1, with Commissioner Nathan Skop voting against.
Argenziano’s seat on the PSC remains vacant, though Gov. Charlie Crist is expected to put one of the commissioners he appointed last month to take office in January on the panel early to replace her.
Graham’s ascension to take over the PSC gavel was seconded by fellow July 2010 appointed Ronald Brisé.
“I’m going to try not to let you down and I’m going to try to lead you into the path that our friends over in the House and the Senate want us to go,” Graham said after assuming the post.
After those brief remarks, he got right to business, quickly embarking on the PSC’s lengthy agenda for the first regularly scheduled meeting since the resignation of Argenziano, whose early departure took many by surprise.
Speaking with the News Service of Florida during an intermission Tuesday, Graham praised Argenziano’s leadership, but distanced himself from her assessments of the panel he now leads.
“I really don’t have a lot of experience of Commissioner Argenziano’s leadership. I was only here a brief time while she was chair,” he said. “She runs a very organized meeting, she’s a good senator, a good commissioner and I wish her the best on everything she’s doing moving forward.”
As for Argenziano’s contentions about the PSC, which she pointedly called “a fetid pit,” Graham said it was a new day at the PSC with him in charge.
“We have to focus on the issues that are before us,” he said. “This is a collegial body here. All the infighting that was going on before I got here, I think that’s all in the past. I think we have to focus on issues that are at the PSC moving forward and do all we can to keep dollars in ratepayers’ pockets.
“Commissioner Argenziano’s got her opinions on how things should be and how things were,” Graham continued. “I can’t fault her opinions, her opinions are her opinions. I’m looking forward, not trying to look back behind us.”
Graham came to the PSC in July after lawmakers ousted former Commissioners David Klement and Benjamin “Steve” Stevens, who they said were too inexperienced for the $130,036-a-year jobs on the PSC. Some lawmakers also complained that Klement and Stevens replacing former PSC Chairman Matthew Carter, who was black, created an all-white utility regulation panel.
Crist turned to Graham and Brisé, who have worked in the wastewater and telecommunication fields respectively. Both were also black, making the picks appear like a response to lawmakers’ criticisms.
The low-key Graham demurred at the time on the role race played in his appointment and, in contrast to previous PSC commissioners, did not plan to have a formal investiture ceremony.
“For me it was enough to just put my hand on the Bible,” he told the News Service this summer. “I didn’t go to the (graduation) ceremony in college. I just put in my hard work, said ‘Thank you Lord and give me my degree.’”
The chairmanship of the PSC traditionally goes to the longest tenured member who has never been chair, which would have been Skop. But like Argenziano, Skop was also denied a second term on the PSC, so is leaving office in January.
Skop is locked in a legal battle with the state’s largest power company, Florida Power & Light, which has alleged he is biased against it. The PSC again delayed Tuesday a host of issues related to FPL as it waits for a court ruling on whether Skop should recuse himself from FPL cases.
Among the deferred items Tuesday was an agreement reached with customer groups to freeze rates through 2012 (Docket No. 080677-EI) that was reached by the company in August with consumer advocates who usually oppose rate increases. PSC also deferred FPL’s hurricane readiness plans, while approving those of other major utilities.
Elsewhere Tuesday, the PSC approved $163 million cost recovery for Progress Energy for construction of its proposed Levy County nuclear plants and its existing Crystal River facility. They will add $5.53 a month to the average cost of 1,000 kilowatts.
The nuclear recovery decision was sharply criticized Tuesday by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, which opposes the
plants.
“Last year our experts testified there would be cost overruns and scheduling delays. And that proved true within just one year’s time, enabling them to deliver ‘We told you so testimony’ this year,” alliance Executive Director Stephen Smith said in statement.
“It’s unbelievable that given the facts presented the commission failed once again to protect Progress and FPL customers – we are beyond disappointed, we are outraged.”