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CPUC says lawmakers can’t pass bills to regulate CUC
The Commonwealth Public Utilities Commission will be asking to meet with members of the Legislature to impress upon them that they should not pass laws regulating CUC since that is the regulatory body’s purview.
In an interview yesterday after their special meeting in Oleai, CPUC chair Joe Guerrero pointed out that Public Law 15-35, which created the CPUC in 2006, gives the commission the power to regulate electric, water, wastewater, telecommunications, and cable television companies in the CNMI.
Before that, the Legislature and the Executive branch played a role in influencing policy governing CUC and telecommunications companies in the CNMI, Guerrero said.
“But since the commission was established and made the regulatory body for CUC and telecom, the Legislature should not be passing laws to regulate CUC and their activities as that really should be the oversight of CPUC,” he said.
Guerrero said that in their experience from about two years ago, many public officials don’t really understand the function of CPUC and how it regulates utilities.
“We’re hoping that through the discussion with the Legislature and anyone else, they will learn more about the CPUC, understand how it works, and participate in our meetings as well,” Guerrero said.
He noted that the only way the Legislature can change these laws and regulate CUC is to come up with new legislation that removes CPUC’s oversight over CUC and telecom firms.
“That is the purview of the Legislature and it all depends on the changes. If the change is good, the public can then welcome it, but if the change is to remove the oversight powers from CPUC, then it really reduces the effectiveness of CPUC,” Guerrero said.
Earlier this year, Rep. Lorenzo I. Deleon Guerrero, who chairs the House Committee on Public Utilities, Transportation, and Communications, planned to introduce a bill that will exclude CUC from the oversight of the CPUC.
Gov. Eloy S. Inos then gave word that he would veto any bill that would exclude or remove the authority of CPUC over CUC.
