Advocates intent on lowering electric utility rates in Kansas appealed Thursday to state legislators, asking for an independent study that delves into ways to lower rates.
Jim Zakoura, spokesman for the Kansas Industrial Consumers Group, which has been a leading voice in criticizing Kansas City Power & Light and Westar Energy for high rates, also challenged those two companies to show a good faith effort by immediately lowering rates by 10 percent. Zakoura’s request for a rate study that shows options the state can take to reduce electric rates was echoed by David Nickel, consumer counsel for CURB, or the Citizens’ Utility Ratepayer Board, which represents residential and small business customers in rate cases.
Nickel said CURB doesn’t see the need for a comprehensive rewrite of the way Kansas sets rates, but added that significant changes have occurred to cause rates to surge in the last decade, necessitating the need to look more closely at what can be done to lower those rates.
(Read more: State Government – The Topeka Capital-Journal)