Chairman Huval puts broadband, market reform, climate change solutions at top of his agenda

APPA needs to grow its political action committee, continue its work on electric market reform and climate change, and work to boost the broadband capability of the United States, said Terry Huval, general manager of Lafayette Utilities System in Louisiana, at the closing general session of the association’s 2007 National Conference. Huval is the new chairman of the APPA board of directors.

Lafayette Utilities System is building a citywide fiber-to-the-home communications system and the new APPA chairman wants to help ensure that all communities have the right to construct similar systems, if they so chose. The United States is now ranked 25th in the world in broadband development and public power needs to advance a public policy agenda that will create a more robust telecommunications industry in the nation, Huval said.

Noting that half of APPA member utilities operate water as well as electric utilities, Huval said he hopes to begin a closer partnership in the coming year with the American Water Works Association.

Huval also urged APPA members to attend the 2008 National Conference, June 21-25 in New Orleans.

Portney, Specker address policy and technology of confronting climate change

“Gore won,” quipped APPA President and CEO Alan H. Richardson in introducing the Tuesday morning session on climate change policy options and technology solutions. Quoting former New York Gov. George Pataki’s shorthand assessment of the politics of climate change, Richardson said the nation clearly needs to set aside debate about whether the earth is warming and develop policies for reducing carbon emissions.

Dr. Paul Portney, dean of the Eller College of Management at the University of Arizona, Tucson, and Dr. Steven Specker, president and CEO of the Electric Power Research Institute, shared their views on policies and technologies for addressing climate change.

Portney, an economist who spent many years at Resources for the Future, a Washington, D.C., public policy organization, said the United States needs to begin now to introduce policies that impose a penalty on technologies that emit carbon into the atmosphere. The process should be gradual, he said. A carbon tax would be more practical than a cap-and-trade emissions allowance program, but the latter approach is the more politically viable policy. If the warming trend observed over the last 20 years were to reverse, it would be much easier to repeal a carbon tax than to set aside an emissions allowance trading program, he said.

Utilities can start reducing carbon emissions now by implementing energy efficiency programs, followed by a scale-up of renewable energy resources, Specker said. Expansion of nuclear energy and advanced coal generating technologies also have the potential to make meaningful reductions in carbon emissions and introduction of carbon capture and sequestration could bring about a decline in carbon emissions by 2020, he said. By 2030, greater use of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and distributed energy could further reduce carbon emissions.

It is technically feasible for the electricity sector to get back to 1990 carbon emission levels by 2030, Specker said. It won’t be easy, but it is possible.

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BBC correspondent Katty Kay gives her take on presidential politics

The number one job of the next president of the United States will be to restore the nation’s global prestige, BBC correspondent Katty Kay told APPA members at the conference’s opening general session in San Antonio on June 25. All candidates in the 2008 presidential race want to distance themselves from George Bush, she said. The Bush administration went wrong in the unilateral way it implemented its agenda, without consulting others, she said.

She gave her take on candidates in the race so far, noting that a Hillary Clinton-Rudy Giuliani race would pit a “pushy New Yorker with marital problems against a pushy New Yorker with marital problems.” The possible entrance into the race of another New Yorker, newly independent Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, is interesting, she said. The billionaire mayor is unlikely to get elected president, but he could be a kingmaker, she said.

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RP3: you may already qualify—just write it down

In a Monday morning session about “RP3 best practices,” Carl Gaulke, general manager of River Falls Municipal Utilities in Wisconsin, said his utility’s efforts to prepare an application to win recognition as a “Reliable Public Power Provider” was very time-consuming, but revealed that the utility was engaged in all the activities required to qualify as an RP3 award winner. Gaulke and Steve Blanchard, general manager of Fayetteville Public Works Commission in North Carolina, described various aspects of their utility operations that led to RP3 recognition.

Both River Falls and Fayetteville were among only four utilities to achieve diamond level RP3 recognition, the highest level achievable.

During discussion at the session, APPA Vice President Michael Hyland shared an anecdote about a utility manager who applied for RP3 recognition, knowing his utility would not make the cut. But the “failing grade” from the RP3 review panel gave the utility manager the ammunition needed to get his city council to approve a capital improvement plan.

Add your comments to this post about this or other discussion sessions at the APPA National Conference.

What’s perking on Sunday?

Three full-day and three half-day pre-conference seminars are offered on Sunday, June 24, beginning at 8:30 in the Marriott RiverWalk Hotel. Walk-in registrants are welcome. The full-day seminars cover:
• Financial Planning for Policymakers and Boards of Directors (led by Mark Beauchamp, president of Utility Financial Solutions, Holland, Mich.
• Strategic Planning for Community-Owned Utilities, led by Bryan Singletary, president of Practical Energies, Tampa, Fla.)
• Enterprise Risk Management (led by Carol Arneson, Lynn Coles, Jodi Dobson and Russ Hissom of Virchow Krause in Madison, Wis.

Participants in the full-day seminars will earn 0.7 continuing education units and 6.5 professional development hours.

Sunday’s half-day seminars will address Public Participation (8:30 to noon), led by Guy Nelson of Utility Energy forum, Lincoln City, Ore., Governance as Leadership, led by Jean Freeman of Freeman & Associates, Fairfax, Va. (8:30 to noon) and Board Self-Evaluation (1-4:30), also led by Jean Freeman. Participants in the half-day sessions will earn 0.3 CEUs or 3 PDHs.

Sunday’s activities also include the Legislative & Resolutions Committee meeting from 2-4 p.m. , a briefing on activities of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at 3 o’clock and 4 o’clock meetings for joint action agencies and the Power Marketing Administration Task Force.

The day will conclude with the grand welcoming reception from 6-7:30 in the Grand Ballroom A of the Marriott RiverCenter.

Pre-Conference Seminars Take In-Depth Look at Hot Topics

APPA National Conference activities kick off on Saturday, June 23, with three all-day and three half-day pre-conference seminars. The Saturday sessions will all be held in salons of the Alamo Ballroom in the MarriottRiverWalk Hotel. Program will egin at 8:30 On-site registrants are welcome. Choose an all-day seminar from these topics:

Electric Utility Industry Economics and the Role of Public Power--an examination of the economic rationale for public enterprises, led by John Kelly, director of economics and research for the American Public Power Association.

Power Supply 101--This is a great opportunity for newcomers to the industry to learn basic technical information about electric utility systems. Presenter Bryan Singletary is entertaining and a veteran of popular utility education programs.

Community Preparedness: Ensuring Your Community is Ready to Recruit New Businesses and Retain Existing Ones--If your responsibilities include economic development, you'll want to check out this session. David Kolzow of the Tennessee Economic Development Center will lead a day-long examination of ways to help your community grow.

If a full day on a single topic is too much for you, consider a morning program and an afternoon program on a couple of these topics:

Leadership in the Midst of a Disaster--Diane Fojt, CEO of Corporate Crisis Management, Inc. and a frontline disaster leader, will examine what utility leaders need to understand about disaster response operations. The program will be offered in the morning and repeated in the afternoon.

The Cascading Effect of Sarbanes-Oxley on Public Power--Federal legislation to reform corporate behavior was not enacted to address government agency activities, but publicly owned enterprises are nonetheless affected. Steven Dawson, a CPA, will talk about the spillover effects of this major federal law on state and local governmental entities. The session will be offered from 8:30 to noon.

The Financial Audit Process--CPA Steven Dawson will spend the afternoon (1-4:30) explaining the why, how and who of financial audits.