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Georgia Senate Panel Passes Slightly Revised Atlanta Gas Light Pipeline Bill

Posted on: Thursday, 16 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Mar. 16--A new and slightly different version of a controversial Atlanta Gas Light pipeline bill cleared the Senate's utilities and industry committee Wednesday afternoon, despite committee Chairman Mitch Seabaugh's initial promise to delay a vote.

In a room packed with scores of lobbyists and witnesses, Seabaugh (R-Sharpsburg) opened the meeting saying his committee would hear testimony but not vote on House Bill 1325, which would pave the way for an expensive, ratepayer-funded pipeline that critics say is not needed.

Then, after the testimony was over and after lawmakers, lobbyists and witnesses had begun wandering away, Seabaugh announced that he'd changed his mind.

The bill passed 8-0. But that count has an asterisk.

Two Democratic members who were there to hear the testimony, Gloria S. Butler (D-Stone Mountain) and Regina Thomas (D-Savannah), did not get back for the vote.

Three Senate Republican leaders who did not attend the meeting and did not hear the testimony showed up for the suddenly rescheduled vote.

President Pro Tem Eric Johnson (R-Savannah), Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) and Appropriations Chairman Jack Hill (R-Reidsville) all missed the meeting but made the vote.

Jim Kulstad, a lobbyist for Common Cause Georgia, said the way the meeting was conducted did a disservice to Georgia citizens.

"Consumers who will have to pay for this pipeline were misled as to when this bill would be voted on and were given no time to digest the substitute or lobby for improvements," Kulstad said.

"This bill is a real stinker."

HB 1325 is heavily backed by Republican legislative leaders.

The bill is specific to one utility comany -- AGL -- and to one project, a proposed $300 million pipeline to the Georgia coast.

The pipeline's cost would be collected by a new fee on the bills of Georgia residential and small-business customers, estimated at between $2 and $2.50 per month for the next 30 years.

The bill doesn't approve the pipeline or the fee directly. But it would set procedures for the state Public Service Commission to do it. Those procedures would be more generous than what other utilities in the state go through when they want regulatory approval of major capital projects.

The procedures would bar the PSC from considering cheaper options, for instance. According to some witnesses and lawmakers, the bill would constrain the PSC's ability to deny the pipeline by spelling out some easily attainable requirements.

And although the Senate version would give the commission a longer window for deciding the issue -- 120 days instead of 90 -- the time period would be far shorter than that used when considering electric utility requests to spend ratepayer money on capital expansions.

With the exception of the bill's House sponsor, Rep. Jeff Lewis (R-White), testimony at Wednesday's hearing was uniformly opposed to the bill.

Sam Shelton, head of the Strategic Infrastructure Project at Georgia Tech, skewered claims that the proposed pipeline would offset its cost to consumers by saving them money on natural gas.

He said the gas market didn't work like that, and that the best consumers could hope for was small savings in the relatively small portion of their bill that pays for pipeline use.

"This is a very unique bill, that legislates a very unique process," Shelton said. "It raised some flags."

He also criticized a series of four standards included in the bill, and the implication that AGL could get its pipeline if it meets two of them: "The threshold is pretty low," he said.

Before approving the bill, the committee amended it to require that AGL meet all four standards, instead of two.

PSC Commissioner Bobby Baker said the bill would set a bad precedent, and that it would make signficant changes in how the commission controls building by regulated utilities.

Will Phillips, of the AARP, said the bill would put a burden on small consumers to make unnecessary changes in the regulatory policy on behalf of a pipeline that isn't needed.

Phillips was among those who criticized the surprise vote that ended the meeting.

"We're disappointed that some of the members who were there for the entire meeting were not there to vote, while some of the members who were not there for the meeting were there to vote," he said.

By Margaret Newkirk and Ann Hardie

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To see more of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.ajc.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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ATG,

Source: The Atlanta Journal and Constitution

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