Riverton Senator Eli Bebout says after meeting with Wyoming’s Consumer Advocate and others, he’s dropping his effort to get rid of the office by next year.
The Office of Consumer Advocate represents consumers when utilities want to raise rates. Bebout said it appears that the office was doing its job, but some laws need to be tweaked to allow it to do more.
“Definitely the process and the system needs to be looked at. You know when you look at the cost of electricity for residential consumers is going up substantially higher than inflation, so of the things that have happened with the regional haze issue with the EPA has bothered me so we really need to focus on the bigger picture and so we will do some interim work.”
Bebout pulled his bill that would have looked at phasing out the office and says is looking forward to making the office more effective in coming months. He said the OCA, the Wyoming Public Service Commission, and others will be part of those discussions.