Lawmakers renew challenge to role of New Hampshire consumer advocate

New Hampshire Consumer Advocate Donald Kreis speaks during a Wednesday, Oct. 1, work session of the House Executive Departments and Administration Committee. The committee discussed a bill amendment that Kreis said would challenge his office's independence. (Photo by Molly Rains/New Hampshire Bulletin)

After it was retained at the end of last session, a bill that initially proposed dissolving the Office of the Consumer Advocate is back. A newly proposed amendment could keep the office intact, though altered, but advocates said the amended bill would still compromise the office’s independence.

New Hampshire’s consumer advocate represents electricity, gas, water, and other utility customers in disputes with utility companies regarding rates, charges, and service quality. The office is charged in its establishing statute to advocate on behalf of ratepayers in any proceeding where their interests are at stake. This often occurs before the Public Utilities Commission, which regulates utilities in New Hampshire, but the consumer advocate can also represent ratepayers before other courts or boards.

Last session, Rep. Ross Berry, of Weare, introduced House Bill 610, which proposed eliminating the office and transferring its role and responsibilities to the Department of Energy.

At the time, Berry said he hoped the elimination of the Office of the Consumer Advocate would streamline energy negotiations, and that the Department of Energy was equipped to represent ratepayer interests. Consumer Advocate Donald Kreis said then that forwarding his office’s work to the governor-appointed staff of the Department of Energy would compromise the independence of the advocacy — something that, as he reiterated on Wednesday, Oct. 1, Kreis believes is essential to the office’s success.

“Our independence is our superpower,” Kreis said that day at a work session of the House Executive Departments and Administration Committee, where the bill was discussed. 

At the session, the new committee chair, Rep. Erica Layon of Derry, introduced an amendment that would change the language of the bill entirely if adopted. Rather than dissolving the office, Layon’s amendment would alter the establishing statute of the Office of the Consumer Advocate. 

As presented Oct. 1, changes include a new paragraph that defines the consumer advocate’s role in advocating for different energy sources, calling for the advocate to pursue two defined duties: “to represent residential ratepayers by ensuring energy sources that provide the highest level of reliability are given preference over ones that are less reliable; and … to represent residential ratepayers by ensuring that the least costly of the energy sources are chosen over those that are more costly to ratepayers and taxpayers.”

The paragraph goes on to state that an advocate could be removed from their post by the governor for reasons including “a failure to fulfill these responsibilities faithfully” or “standard improprieties,” such as advocating for personal or political gain while in office.

The  amendment would also broaden the scope of professions eligible to hold the office from only attorneys to also include economists and professional engineers and require that the advocate appoint an attorney to their staff. 

Kreis said the amendment as written would challenge the office’s independence.

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“I respectfully disagree with the idea of allowing the governor to remove the consumer advocate for what strikes me as potentially arbitrary and subjective reasons,” he said.

He also said focusing on different energy sources would represent a significant change for the office.

“In order to represent residential customers at the PUC, we simply don’t confront those choices,” Kreis said, adding that the structure of the electricity market meant that prices — rather than source — were the major determinant of what source purchased energy comes from.

Kreis also said it’s important that the consumer advocate is an attorney. 

“Our mission is advocacy, and that is what lawyers do,” he said. 

Residential Ratepayers Advisory Board member Neil Kirk also said the language about advocate removal should be tightened.

“It is so worded that a governor could, in effect, replace the advocate, even if they were doing a good job, because she didn’t like him. I think it’s important, I think it’s sensible, but it’s not clear enough so that it doesn’t become a political football. The one thing you don’t want is to have the consumer advocate as a political football,” he said.

Another provision in the amendment would specify that the Residential Ratepayers Advisory Board would have oversight authority over the Office of the Consumer Advocate. Kirk said that change would formalize a function that the board is already undertaking.

Representatives of the New Hampshire chapter of the American Association of Retired Persons also attended the work session to comment on the proposal.

“Utilities have a lot of money, and they have a lot of attorneys, and so having a valuable and effective consumer advocate is really important in the state,” said Patrick McDermott, New Hampshire volunteer state president. 

Layon said she introduced the amendment because the original version of the bill had failed to move forward. However, she said the committee would continue to work on the amendment; members did not vote on the amendment on Oct. 1.

The committee will take up the bill again at their next meeting.