High stakes ride on Crist's PSC picks

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Charlie Crist will decide this week who to appoint to two key posts on the state board that regulates utilities, a decision that will influence energy policy and affect Florida's electric, water and sewer rates for years to come.

He'll make the choices at a time when the state's two biggest energy companies — Progress Energy and Florida Power & Light — have asked the Public Service Commission for rate hikes of about 30 percent to finance their growth. And also when the PSC is under fire by state authorities over possible improper relationships between PSC staffers and the utilities they regulate.

Crist's choices will influence the future direction of the PSC and determine its chairman — the person who decides which commissioners sit on which cases, schedules hearings and makes rulings. The position is rotated every two years based on seniority.

If Crist re-appoints Commissioner Katrina McMurrian, she would become chairman, with power to control the rate hearings. If Crist rejects her, the chairmanship would go to Nancy Argenziano, the maverick commissioner who has alleged corruption at her own agency and is disliked by some utility companies.

The stakes are high enough that Argenziano opponents have tried lobbing allegations about her financial dealings with a former trial lawyer lobbyist, Rocky Pennington, including property they own together. Argenziano has denied any wrongdoing.

Crist has been trying to walk the middle ground, saying he's looking for "people of integrity, people who are intelligent and have the appropriate intellect to handle the job, people who care about the state of Florida."

The governor has six nominees for the two jobs on the five-member commission, including McMurrian and Matthew Carter, the PSC's current chairman. The nominees were chosen by a group of six legislators and six private citizens who make recommendations on the appointments.

Critics of the commission see the two openings — each is a four-year term — as an opportunity for the governor to strengthen his commitment to green energy and help halt PSC resistance to policies that reduce energy consumption.

Utility companies — which want to move into "green'' energy even as they build new power plants — say the right appointees will offer a chance to push back against what they consider radical ideas to force them into costly conservation and alternative energy programs.

The governor has said he wants to pick someone who will reject the rate increases sought by Progress Energy and FPL. Crist must name his two appointees by Saturday or the 12-member Public Servicing Nominating Council will choose for him.

The nominating council conducted interviews of 11 finalists seeking the job on Sept. 1, selecting three white men, two black men and one black woman to fill out the required list of six to be sent to the governor.

Only two candidates — Steve Stevens, the finance director at the Escambia County Sheriff's Office and David Klement, a former chairman of the Bradenton Herald newspaper's editorial board — have never worked for a utility or the PSC.

The rest — commissioners Carter and McMurrian, attorney Felicia West and accountant John Grayson — have worked at the PSC in various jobs.

That is a concern for Sen. Lee Constantine, R-Orlando, the vice chairman of the nominating council, who believes the PSC staff is too close to the utilities. During the nominee interviews, he grilled both Carter and McMurrian, complaining that "a fundamental problem'' with the PSC is that "there is too much dependency on the staff," and staff members are too willing to tout the industry line.

Even when the Legislature writes laws directing the PSC to encourage energy conservation or help develop renewable energy, the commission drags its feet, Constantine said. After the Legislature told the PSC to develop a plan to require utilities to use renewable sources of energy, staff members recommended that companies be required to have 20 percent of the mix — by 2050.

Only after lobbying from the governor and others did the commissioners — "kicking and screaming'' — shorten the deadline to 2020, Constantine said.

He also said legislators have ordered the commission to make sure electric companies reward consumers who save energy, but no such changes have been made. When he asked about the issue during the legislative session, he said PSC staff members weren't concerned because they knew he would be leaving the state Senate in a year due to term limits.

Carter and McMurrian each said they rely on staff members for information but make their decisions independently. As for trying to encourage conservation, Carter said he expects the commission to set more aggressive goals on the issue next month.

"We heard you loud and clear, senator," he told Constantine.

Some members of the nominating council are open about whom they hope the governor will choose. Rep. Dave Murzin, council chairman and a Republican from Pensacola, called Stevens, the chief financial officer for the Escambia County Sheriff's Department an "accountant extraordinaire."

Sen. Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa Democrat and nominating council member, was rooting for West, a Washington, D.C., attorney and part-time lobbyist. When a question arose whether West, a PSC staff member for six years, had let her Florida Bar membership lapse, Joyner left the meeting, called the bar and announced: "She can be reinstated by paying $90."

When Crist came to office, he rejected two pending PSC appointments made by Gov. Jeb Bush and selected two others: former state Sen. Argenziano and Nathan Skop, a former business manager for FPL Energy, the unregulated subsidiary of FPL Group.

He said he wanted consumer advocates. Each has voted against the majority of the board on several key votes, most recently when both called for internal investigations into PSC staff members and fellow commissioners.

Carter and McMurrian were Bush appointees. For that reason, Constantine believes Crist will consider the whole list rather than reflexively re-appointing incumbents.

"He felt that he put two consumer advocates on the commission and I think he's still looking for that," Constantine said.

Mary Ellen Klas can be reached at meklas@miamiherald.com.