DAILY BLOG

DAY 19

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Conservative Republican’s Campaign Diary

Day 19, The “Prison Phone Scandal” From a Neutral Perspective, Part 2

Today we’re going to finish discussing Tom Aswell’s coverage of the “prison phone scandal”. In case you’re just joining us, today’s article will make more sense if you go back and read the entries on the prison phone scandal. Mr. Aswell ran Capitol News Service for over a decade and has one of the oldest political blogs in Louisiana. His website is louisianavoice.com, see link 1 below.

Yesterday’s entry concluded with Mr. Aswell’s assertion that, when it comes to taking money from companies that he regulates

Skrmetta, however, has taken the practice to art form status; he has received substantially more campaign money from regulated industries than any other member of the PSC.

But Mr. Aswell has a lot more to say on Mr. Skrmetta’s campaign contributions. Let’s have a look:

In all, he has received a whopping $482,800 in individual contributions of $500 or more from regulated industries, attorneys and PSC contractors just since 2009. That was a year after he was first elected to the PSC. Only two campaign contributions totaling $1,200 are listed on his campaign reports prior to 2009.

Scores of representatives of Entergy contributed at least $30,800 since 2009 and the New Orleans law firm Stone-Pigman and several of its attorneys chipped in another $29,750 — $17,000 on the same day that Skrmetta made the motion during a PSC meeting to approve an additional $220,000 in consultant fees and expenses for the firm’s defense of litigation filed against the commission by Occidental Chemical Corp.

Skrmetta, it should be noted, opposed the ban on fundraisers within 72-hours of PSC meetings—understandable in hindsight. A 72-hour ban be damned; he took the money on the same day of the commission’s meeting and its approval of the amendment which bumped the law firm’s contract up to $468,000 in fees and $39,600 in expenses.

Remember that this article is from the last election, the pile of money donated by companies that Mr. Skrmetta regulates has grown considerably. Forest Wright, who lost the last election to Mr. Skrmetta by about 1%, thought this was pretty shady:

Wright, Skrmetta’s opponent in Saturday’s runoff election was critical of Skrmetta’s taking the contributions from Stone-Pigman on the same day as the PSC meeting—and on the same day as the contract amendment.

“The issue is integrity, which is undermined when a public service commissioner takes a cut off the top from the contracts they authorize in the form of campaign contributions,” he said. “We pay the price from these bad dealings, not only in dollars but also in the erosion of trust that happens all too frequently when elected leaders put themselves and their own power before the interest of the public.”

If you’re confused about the reference to the Stone-Pigman law firm, it’s a reference to a second scandal, the “Stone-Pigman scandal” that I’ll detail in a future entry. I wanted to include it here to emphasize the point that Mr. Wright makes about the erosion of public trust when politicians engage in shady dealings. Many Americans simple don’t trust our government because politicians don’t always put the best interests of their constituents first. That’s why my slogan is Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency. I won’t accept campaign contributions from a company that I would regulate after the election. It’s an inherent conflict of interest, even if it’s legal. Both Alabama and the New Orleans City Council forbid elected officials that regulate electric utilities from accepting campaign donations donations from the companies they regulate.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about some of the things that happen on the campaign trail.

Please forward this to anyone you know that lives in Louisiana. You can find all of the daily entries on the “Campaign Diary” section of www.bigjohnmason.com if you want to find a particular day’s diary entry. I will also be posting the diary on fb.

You can learn more about me by visiting my campaign website at www.bigjohnmason.com, , emailing me at bigjohnmason1@gmail.com, calling my campaign line at (504) 509-0274, listening to The Big John Mason Show on wgso.com every Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:00 pm central time, searching for “The Big John Mason Show” on fb, and/or you can visit https://wgso.com/category/podcast/the-big-john-mason-show/ for past shows.

LINKS:

1) https://louisianavoice.com/

DAY 18

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Conservative Republican’s Campaign Diary

Day 18, The “Prison Phone Scandal” From a Neutral Perspective, Part 1

Many people are flabbergasted when they learn about the prison phone system. It seems like bribery or buying a public official’s vote to a lot of people. Today we’re going to look at a blog entry from an independent who claims to be neither a republican or a democrat. In case you’re just joining us, today’s article will make more sense if you go back and read the entries on the prison phone scandal.

Tom Aswell ran Capitol News Service for over a decade. Capitol News covered state government for roughly 40 newspapers, as described in link 1 below. His website is louisianavoice.com, see link 2 below. Mr. Aswell’s coverage is very thorough and he has a lot to say on the subject. Even presenting a summary of all that he’s written will take me more than one entry. Let’s dive right into Mr. Aswell’s coverage, beginning with how Mr. Skrmetta treated Robert Tasman, the Associate Director of the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops.

A smug Skrmetta displayed unprecedented contempt for Robert Tasman who, through frequent interruptions and challenges from the chairman, attempted to read a statement on behalf of the conference which called upon the PSC to reduce exorbitant telephone rates for prison inmates.

Skrmetta claimed that he was told by an archbishop for the church that the church’s position was simply that rates not be increased. The exchange between Skrmetta and Tasman escalated to Skrmetta’s suggesting that Tasman should attend confession, presumably for attempting to mislead the commission.

Clearly Mr. Aswell was as disturbed by Mr. Skrmetta’s conduct as much as I was. I’ve received comments from people that watched the video that I posted earlier that were very shocked by Mr. Skrmetta’s unprofessional behavior. You can watch it for yourself by clicking on link 3 below. Mr. Aswell is just getting warmed up, though. He next examines what he feels are Mr. Skrmetta’s motivations for his poor behavior.

So, what moved Skrmetta to such passion that he would challenge the veracity of an official of the Catholic Church?

Well, for openers, try $29,500.

That’s how much he has received in campaign contributions since 2009 from six companies and executives of two of the companies that provide inmate telephone services. Two of those, Securus Technologies of Dallas, and City TeleCoin Co. of Bossier City, combined to contribute $12,000 to Skrmetta’s campaign in separate contributions in December of 2013, nine months after the companies were cited by the PSC for charging extra fees in violation of the amended rates of December of 2012.

I’ve cut some of Mr. Aswell’s very detailed analysis in the interest of space.

Taking campaign contributions from regulated industries, while posing the obvious risk of conflicts of interest and even influence-buying, is not at all unusual. Utilities and trucking companies which are regulated by the PSC contributed to commission members just as insurance-related companies contributed to campaigns for Louisiana Insurance Commissioner in a practice some equate to little more than not-so-subtle bribery.

Skrmetta, however, has taken the practice to art form status; he has received substantially more campaign money from regulated industries than any other member of the PSC.

Remember that this article is from the last election, the pile of money donated by companies that Mr. Skrmetta regulates has grown considerably. I’ll finish Mr. Aswell’s commentary and give you some of my thoughts in tomorrow’s entry.

LINKS:

1) https://louisianavoice.com/about/

2) https://louisianavoice.com/

3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnY7MZQ3-HQ

DAY 17

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Conservative Republican’s Campaign Diary

Day 17, A Letter From Eric Skrmetta

Yesterday I finished explaining why I’m in favor of regulating high-speed internet and putting it under the control of the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC). Today I’m going to talk about a letter I received from my opponent, Commissioner Eric Skrmetta. It came in what looks like an official Louisiana Public Service Commission envelope and it’s written on what appears to be official Louisiana Public Service commission stationery. In fact, you may be able to make out the watermark on the scan of the letter that I’ve attached. Both the letter and the envelope are attached to this entry on my website. FB is a little more restrictive, so I’ve only attached a copy of the letter.

The letter itself is fairly short and I will quote the body in its entirety.

Thank you for offering to serve the Republican Party and Jefferson Parish. I am sorry your run was unsuccessful. However, your party still needs you. I hope you will stay involved. It is an important election year and we need everyone. I look forward to seeing you soon.

You will see me tonight at the Washington Parish Republican Executive Committee, Mr. Skrmetta. You will see me at every speaking engagement I am physically able to attend, and I’ll speaking to any organization or individual that invites me to speak because I firmly believe that the people of District 1 need representation that is honest and transparent and will look out for the best interests of both residents and businesses. Nonetheless, I’m straying from my main point, so let’s talk about what’s so disturbing about this letter from Mr. Skrmetta, who serves on the Louisiana Republican State Central Committee.

Ignore the content. On the surface it looks like an incumbent taunting an opponent. I’ll talk about how Mr. Skrmetta has been calling me a puppet being controlled by forces beyond my understanding, but for now don’t concentrate on what these six sentences mean. This letter appears to be from the Louisiana Public Service Commission, doesn’t it?

The letter is dated September 1, 2020 but I received it on Saturday, September 18.

I immediately checked the postmark, only to find that there wasn’t one. The “forever” stamp on the envelope has no postmark or cancellation whatsoever. There are some marks on the bottom of the envelope suggesting it was scanned by machine, but for all I know this could have been hand delivered. If it really took a letter seventeen days to travel from Metairie, Louisiana to Metairie, Louisiana, then that is the ultimate argument against voting by mail. My first question is whether Mr. Skrmetta used his personal funds, Louisiana Republican Party funds, or Louisiana Public Service Commission funds to pay for the stamp. It’s certainly not clear from the envelope. The Louisiana Public Service Commission is in Baton Rouge, of course, but Mr. Skrmetta’s office is in Metairie at the address shown on the envelope. Did the taxpayer pay for this letter?

Now look at the stationery. It certainly appears to be official Louisiana Public Service Commission letterhead, but it bears the addresses of two of Mr. Skrmetta’s Public Service Commission offices. Same question, namely who paid for this stationery: the PSC, the Louisiana GOP, or Mr. Skrmetta personally? It’s clear from the contents of the letter that it’s about the Republican party, but it is this message from the PSC, the Republican Party, or Mr. Skrmetta personally?

Most of the people I’ve shown this letter and envelope to thought it was from an official communication from the Louisiana Public Service Commission, whereas I believe it’s a personal communication from Mr. Skrmetta in his individual capacity, but I can’t rule out that it’s sent on behalf of the Louisiana Republican Party. I don’t think this was paid for by the Louisiana taxpayer, but I’m not 100% certain.

This is what’s called an “appearance of impropriety”. An “appearance of impropriety” is when something looks fishy regardless of whether or not it’s really improper. Appearances of impropriety seem to follow Mr. Skrmetta around like a faithful hound. Make up your own mind, folks. In what capacity did Mr. Skrmetta send this letter? Who is he speaking for? Who paid for it? Does this feel right to you, or does it fail the “smell test”? Is this proper behavior for an elected official?

We’ll take another look at the “prison phone scandal” from a different perspective. See you tomorrow.

DAY 16

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Conservative Republican’s Campaign Diary

Day 16, An Introduction to Broadband Regulation – Part 5

If you’ve been following my campaign diary from the beginning, you know that, like most conservatives, I am strongly in favor of deregulation. Nonetheless, there is one area that I’m for regulating: high-speed (broadband) internet. Yesterday I explained one reason why regulating broadband makes sense if we’re ever going to reach our goal of broadband access for every Louisiana citizen. Today I’m going to talk about the second reason I’m in favor of regulating high-speed internet and putting it under the control of the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC).

This one is pretty easy to explain via an analogy. During the covid crises the United States was buying a lot of personal protective equipment, covid tests and a large proportion of our medicine from communist China. Why? Because they had the cheapest prices. It turns out that the quality was always the best, in fact several of the covid tests returned false positives. The problem wasn’t just the low quality of the goods, though. China “hinted” that they might sell the medicine to Europe and might not have enough to sell to the United States.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that being dependent on a fickle trading partner for your supply of critical medicine isn’t good policy, especially during a time of rising tensions. It’s very important that the United States has companies to produce medicine domestically so that we always have it available regardless of what foreign manufacturers do. It costs more to make medicine domestically for a variety of reasons, but the bottom line is that the consumer pays more. Since it’s a matter of national importance we deem the trade off of always having a supply of medicine outweighs the increased cost.

The internet becomes more important every day. People depend on it for their livelihoods. Doctors are seeing more and more patients online. I’ve already talked about how 86% of Louisiana’s schoolchildren have to take at least some classes online. Of course, more and more people rely on the internet for news and entertainment. Having to drive 20 or 30 miles to find a wireless hotspot just isn’t acceptable. People of all walks of life need the internet, and they need it now, not years from now.

Simply put, broadband access is a societal good for the citizens of Louisiana. If we’re going to compete with our sister states and stop our children and grandchildren from leaving Louisiana to settle elsewhere, we need to have 100% broadband access. The ability to compete economically in the long run outweighs the need to regulate high-speed internet. And regulation isn’t a permanent state of affairs. After a certain period of time PSC commissioners can always deregulate broadband.

Tomorrow we’re going to look at a minor abuse of power by Commissioner Skrmetta. I believe it shows him abusing taxpayer funds to conduct his personal political business.

LINKS:

1) https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/technology/net-neutrality-fcc-vote-internet-utility.html

2) https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2019/12/how-state-policy-shapes-broadband-deployment

DAY 15

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Conservative Republican’s Campaign Diary

Day 15, An Introduction to Broadband Regulation – Part 4

I ended yesterday with an important question. In earlier entries in this series I spent quite some time explaining why I support deregulation (which is NOT the same as eliminating all regulation) of energy utilities like electricity and gas. Yet I’ve spent the last three days talking about bringing rural broadband to the 25 to 30% of Louisianans that don’t it. I also said that broadband should be brought under the umbrella of the PSC and be regulated by it. Am I some sort of two-faced hypocrite? How can I be a proponent of deregulation of energy utilities but also be for the regulation of broadband internet? There are two different ways to explain this, and I’ll briefly describe the first one today.

There are several large cellular providers that would love to be your cell provider: AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, and T-Mobile. In fact, these are the only four with nationwide networks, see link 1 below. But we all know that these aren’t the only cell phone providers: there are at least 139 companies that provide cellular service, and they service about 6 to 7% of all Americans, see link 2. Many of these smaller providers have very little equipment and most have no network. How is this possible? The law allows them to lease cellular service from the “Big 4” at wholesale prices and resell it to you, generally for less than you’d pay one of the Big 4.

The energy utilities have infrastructure already in place. Electricity providers have substations, a power grid, utility poles for the wires and lots of other equipment already in place and already operational, just like the Big 4 have all of the infrastructure in place to provide cellular service. If a company can generate electricity and would like to sell it in Louisiana, they can use the existing infrastructure to get the power to where it needs to go. It doesn’t matter if the company generating the energy is in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, or even Montana, although it would cost substantially more to transmit the power all the way from Montana than it would to transmit it from Mississippi. That’s one of the reasons I’m for energy utility deregulation.

Now let’s look at rural broadband. Unlike the situation just described, the infrastructure doesn’t exist yet and needs to be built. As described over the last three days Louisiana is just beginning the long journey toward providing every Louisiana citizen broadband access. Because the infrastructure isn’t there, companies need an incentive to build it. Regulating broadband would give the companies that build rural infrastructure the same regulated monopoly status the energy companies now enjoy. They would be (temporarily) protected from competition in order to recoup their costs and generate a reasonable profit. I say temporarily because they can be deregulated in the future. In short, when no infrastructure exists in a region, regulation provides a powerful incentive for companies to build infrastructure in the areas the big companies don’t want to bother with because the profit margins aren’t sufficient.

It should be easy to see that one of the reasons the regulated monopoly system came into being was to encourage companies to create the infrastructure necessary to bring electricity to the states. Regulation allowed the energy companies to recoup their costs and make a guaranteed profit while they under the regulatory regime. There are a lot of businesses in today’s environment that would love to make a guaranteed profit, especially in today’s environment.

In summary, the first reason I’m in favor of regulating broadband is to encourage companies to provide the internet infrastructure that Louisiana so desperately needs by allowing them to recoup their costs and guaranteeing them a reasonable profit. Over time the regulation will be unnecessary and they can be deregulated.

I’ll continue describing the reasons I believe broadband should be regulated in tomorrow’s entry.

LINKS:

1) https://www.toptenreviews.com/best-cell-phone-providers#:~:text=Verizon%20Wireless%2C%20AT%26T%2C%20T%2D,Virtual%20Network%20Operators%20(MVNOs).

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_virtual_network_operator

DAY 14

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Conservative Republican’s Campaign Diary

Day 14, An Introduction to Broadband Regulation – Part 3

Yesterday we described the dirty little secret behind why so many people that live in Louisiana don’t have access to the internet. There’s just not enough profit for the big companies that provide broadband internet to high-density population areas. We also talked about Senator Beth Mizell’s bill, which is now a law, which allows companies that want to provide broadband internet to rural areas to use the electric co-op’s utility poles to run cable and makes it easier for would-be internet service providers (ISPs) to provide service, since they won’t have to pay to erect hundreds, if not thousands, of utility poles to run their cables. Likewise Representative Daryl Deshotel’s bill, which is also now a law, allows ISPs to purchase fiber-optic cable without having to pay state or local taxes, if the cable is purchased to provide internet service.

What does this have to do with the Louisiana Public Service Commission. Well, consider your current ISP. For many people this is a big company like Cox, or Charter, or AT&T. Cable TV isn’t regulated by the PSC, so customer complaints fall on deaf ears. These companies have monopoly protection, but they aren’t regulated by the PSC. What little regulation they face are specified by their contract with the municipal area that granted them the monopoly to provide services in a geographical area. Take a moment and think about the last time you had a problem with your cable or internet provider. Was getting in touch with someone easy or did you have to wade through levels of voicemail before you were finally put on hold? Was the problem fixed quickly? Were you satisfied with the level of customer service?

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) used to regulate the internet as a public utility, see link 1 below. Louisiana’s constitution requires that all utilities be regulated by the Public Service Commission, so why isn’t broadband being regulated now? The incumbent, Eric Skrmetta, has tried to get the legislature to do just that. And he’s failed. Not once, not twice, but three times. Yet Mr. Skrmetta has been in office for twelve full years but has only tried three times. Why did he only try once every four years or so? I don’t think giving him another six years will result in broadband regulation, and I believe its too important an issue to leave in Mr. Skrmetta’s hands.

You may be thinking that if the U.S. Government regulates broadband, then this should preempt state regulation. That’s often true, but the federal government backed off of national regulation, opening the door for states to regulate ISPs. Different states have different regulatory schemes, see link 2 below for a discussion of this. As mentioned yesterday, Mississippi has been rolling out a program to regulate rural broadband and Senator Mizell has been quick to point out that we can use what Mississippi has learned as a basis for Louisiana’s program.

Many of you are probably asking the obvious question: didn’t you spend several days championing deregulation in your campaign diary? I did. I spent several days describing how deregulation will increase consumer choice, regardless of whether you’re a residential consumer or a large business or industry. How, then, can I state that I want rural broadband regulated? Am I some sort of two-faced hypocrite? No, I’m not. There’s an important difference between deregulating utilities and regulating broadband. Want to know what it is? Then join me for tomorrow’s entry.

LINKS:

1) https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/technology/net-neutrality-fcc-vote-internet-utility.html

2) https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/issue-briefs/2019/12/how-state-policy-shapes-broadband-deployment

DAY 13

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Conservative Republican’s Campaign Diary

Day 13, An Introduction to Broadband Regulation – Part 2

In the last entry I described how some 403,000 Louisianans have no internet access whatsoever. That means, for example, that even though 86% of Louisiana’s schoolchildren are required to take online courses, more than half of Louisiana’s parishes (35 out of 64) report that half of the children living in those parishes don’t have ANY internet access at all, see link 1 below. As noted last time an increasing number of people depend heavily on the internet to make a living, visit a doctor, educate their children, and just watch a movie. The reason for this is relatively simple, but it takes a lot of space to describe it, hence this multi-part series.

Yet 25% to 30% of the people in Louisiana, mostly in the rural areas, don’t have ANY access to the internet (see link 2 below). But the situation is worse than it sounds. Some rural residents do have internet access, but at speeds so low that only one person in the family can be on at one time (see link 3 below). Now imagine that both parents need the internet for work and all three children need the internet for online classes but the internet is too slow to permit this.

If Louisiana is to compete in the digital economy, this is just not acceptable. ALL OF OUR CITIZENS DESERVE EQUAL ACCESS TO THE INTERNET! Note that I’m not arguing that you, the taxpayer, should have to pay the monthly bill for anyone, all I’m saying that you should have an option to buy high-speed internet access for your children (and yourself) regardless of whether you live in a big city or a rural parish.

I’ll give you a hint as to why this is happening: the Wall Street Journal points out that this problem is especially acute in the rural areas of West Virginia, and, in fact, all over rural America in general, see link 4. They also point out that according to a study done by Microsoft, about 157 million Americans have either no access to the internet, unreliable access to the internet, or slow-speed internet. That’s almost half of America that doesn’t have access to reliable high-speed internet.

That’s enough beating around the bush. Why is this happening? The answer is simple: there’s just not a lot of profit for the big internet service providers. Companies like Cox and Charter, for example, don’t want to pay to install and maintain the equipment necessary to bring high-speed (i.e. broadband) internet to rural areas. Doing so would require them to increase rates for their urban customers to recoup their investment. It’s far easier to throw money to some lobbyists to make sure that legislators “vote the right way” and make sure they never have to provide rural access, despite the fact they have a monopoly for a given area.

As I explained yesterday, the Louisiana legislature has finally started the process of providing equal access to all Louisiana citizens, regardless of where they live, but it doesn’t force anyone to provide internet access to a rural area. It simply permits an internet service provider to use a rural co-op’s utility poles to get cables to rural areas. This makes plenty of sense, since co-ops are generally owned by the people they serve, so they make sure that rural areas have electricity. It’s definitely a good start, but there’s still a long way to go.

The legislature is trying to access a large pool of federal money that was set aside specifically to permit companies to bring broadband to rural areas. There are several things a would-be internet service provider has to do to comply with the federal requirements and get the money, however. It’s also going to be necessary for the co-ops and other small companies that want to bring broadband to rural areas to cooperate and coordinate with the Louisiana legislature. The internet service providers (ISPs) need to tell the legislature what they need. This was the impetus behind House Bill 69, sponsored by Representative Daryl Deshotel, which exempts fiber-optic cables from state and local taxes when purchases by ISPs. This helps keep the ISPs costs down and provides an incentive for them to expand broadband access.

Mississippi is further along this process than we are, and Senator Beth Mizell has pointed out they we can learn from their example. We can use what they did right as a model for our efforts, while avoiding their few missteps.

What does any of this have to do with the Public Service Commission? Join me tomorrow and I’ll tell you.

LINKS:

1) https://www.knoe.com/2020/08/17/about-25-of-louisiana-students-lack-internet-access-for-remote-learning/

2) https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/education/2020/04/22/remote-learning-louisiana-students-lack-internet-access-school-districts/2995521001/

3) https://lailluminator.com/2020/08/26/students-in-rural-areas-struggle-with-a-lack-of-rural-broadband-access/

4) https://www.wsj.com/articles/remote-schooling-out-of-reach-for-many-students-in-west-virginia-without-internet-11599989401

DAY 12

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Conservative Republican's Campaign Diary

Day 12, An Introduction to Broadband Regulation – Part 1

Today I’m going to cover another campaign issue that’s critically important to Louisiana’s future, yet many people aren’t even aware it’s an issue. Like deregulation, the issue is too broad to cover in a single installment, so I will break it down into bite-sized daily chunks. It may not seem like this has anything to do with the Louisiana Public Service Commission, but I will tie it all together before I’m done.

Covid has caused a lot of havoc in everyone’s lives, and it’s greatly increased the impact that the internet has on many people’s daily lives. Some people use it to work remotely (“teleworking”) from home, because social distancing means that they can’t go into the workplace. An estimated 86% of all Louisiana schoolchildren are required to take at least some classes online, sell link 1 below. Many doctors now schedule online appointments, expanding the field of telemedicine. And a lot of people like to unwind with friends and family by plopping down on the sofa and streaming a favorite TV show or movie. Simply put an increasing number of people depend heavily on the internet for their livelihoods, their children’s education, their family’s health, and their entertainment, especially during the lockdown.

So let me ask you a few questions that I’m sure are going to seem blatantly obvious to the majority of my readers.

1. Do you think the internet is going to be less important over the next 15 to 20 years?

2. Do you think that fast internet is better than slow internet?

3. If your internet access is provided by your TV provider (like Cox, Comcast, etc.), have you ever had a problem or issue with your customer service?

4. Do you think everyone in Louisiana should have equal access to the internet?

Most people think these are “no-brainer” type questions. The overwhelming majority of people think the answer is very obvious, and answer a resounding: YES. We’re going to spend the rest of this entry talking about question #4.

The problem is that 25% to 30% of the people in Louisiana, mostly in the rural areas, don’t have ANY access to the internet (see link 2 below). In fact, 35 of the 64 parishes in Louisiana (about 55%) report that at least 50% of their students don’t have high-speed internet access. That means 403,000 Louisiana households can’t access the internet unless they travel to somewhere that does have internet access (see link 3 below). As if this weren’t bad enough, some rural residents do have internet access, but at speeds so low that only one person in the family can be on at one time (also link 3 below). Now imagine that both parents need the internet for work and all three children need the internet for online classes but the internet is too slow to permit this. It’s not a pretty picture, is it?

That’s just not acceptable. All of our children deserve equal access to online learning. Note that I’m not arguing that the taxpayer foot the bill for any of this, all I’m saying that you should have an option to purchase high-speed internet access for your children (and yourself) regardless of whether you live in a big city or a rural parish. I would be amazed if an overwhelming majority of Louisiana citizens don’t agree with this statement. I’m sure that at least 85 – 90% of Louisianans believe that every family should be able to buy high-speed (i.e. broadband) internet regardless of where they live.

So why don’t they have access? What’s the problem? We’ll talk about that in tomorrow’s entry.

LINKS:

1) https://www.knoe.com/2020/08/17/about-25-of-louisiana-students-lack-internet-access-for-remote-learning/

2) https://www.theadvertiser.com/story/news/local/education/2020/04/22/remote-learning-louisiana-students-lack-internet-access-school-districts/2995521001/

3) https://lailluminator.com/2020/08/26/students-in-rural-areas-struggle-with-a-lack-of-rural-broadband-access/

DAY 11

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary – Day 11, Why I’m Running – Civility and Professionalism

Yesterday, I posted the last entry in my three part series describing one of the

reasons that I’m running for office. It took me three entries to fully describe the “prison

phone scandal”, one of the many scandals that seem to follow Commissioner Skrmetta

around. I almost entitled today “Part 4”, because it does involve something that

happened during the prison phone scandal. Nevertheless, it’s really separate issue. The

issue is simple, we expect our elected officials to be polite, professional, and civil.

Of course, we’re all human, and everyone has a bad day. It’s often difficult to be

civil, especially is you’re insulted or heckled. It’s easy to snap back at someone who’s

behaving poorly. Everyone has a right to a bad day. But what about if you’re not being

attacked? What if the other person is being polite and civil? Do you think it’s okay for

an elected official to act poorly? What about calling them a liar? Do you expect your

elected officials to act poorly in this situation?

Let’s take a look at what happened when Mr. Robert Tasman, the Associate

Director for the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops, was sent to testify in front of

the Louisiana Public Service Commission. It was captured on video and posted to

YouTube. Link 1 below has the shorter edited version that I’ll be talking about today

and runs 2 minutes and 46 seconds. If you’d like to watch the entire episode, which

lasts 7 minutes and 41 seconds, that’s also on YouTube, just click on link 2 below. I urge

you to watch at least the first one, but you’ll learn more if you watch both. As always I

encourage you to do your own research and reach your own conclusions.

The Conference wanted the PSC to lower the rates that prisoners pay when they

make a phone call from prison to their family or to their attorney. One of the major

providers of phone service to inmates is City Tele Coin, whose history with Mr. Skrmetta

I’ve been describing over the last three days. To no one’s surprise Mr. Skrmetta was not

a big fan of this idea. Let’s see how he acted.

After Mr. Tasman has stated that the Conference would like the rates lowered.

Mr. Skrmetta states that he had recently spoken to Archbishop Aymond, who had told

Mr. Skrmetta differently. Then Mr. Skrmetta states that he knows the official position of

the Catholic Church on this matter and implies that Mr. Tasman is lying. “Now I’ll meet

you over at confession on Saturday if you want, before church.” In other words Mr.

Skrmetta has the gall to suggest that the Associate Director of the Louisiana Conference

of Catholic Bishops needs to go to confession for lying and that Mr. Skrmetta knows the

official position of the Catholic Church better than the chosen spokesperson of

Louisiana’s bishops based off of a single conversation with the Archbishop of New

Orleans.

Commissioner Campbell states that he has talked with the Bishop of Shreveport,

who dioceses is in Campbell’s district, and that Mr. Tasman is telling the truth. Mr.

Skrmetta smugly states that his archbishop beats Mr. Campbell’s bishop. I use the word

‘smugly’ because it perfectly defines the look on Mr. Skrmetta’s face. If you had any

doubt that Mr. Skrmetta has a problem with Mr. Campbell, notice that when Mr.

Campbell says “with all due respect” Mr. Skrmetta snaps back “there’s no respect, I’m

asking a question here.” He then states that he can go to the Press Club to “take care of

this”. Mr. Skrmetta wraps up his questioning by telling Mr. Tasman that “his Holiness

would appreciate the accurate placement of words in his mouth”.

Think about this. Mr. Skrmetta is implying that Mr. Tasman is lying, stating that

he (Mr. Skrmetta) knows the official position of the Catholic Church better than the

Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishop’s spokesperson, states that “his” archbishop

beats Mr. Campbell’s bishop, tells a fellow PSC commissioner that “there’s no respect”,

and then lectures Mr. Tasman on what the Pope would appreciate. Ignoring the smug

look, I’ll freely admit that Mr. Skrmetta’s tone is polite, for the most part. He doesn’t

yell or scream.

I think most people will agree, however, that his behavior is neither civil nor

professional. Mr. Skrmetta apparently does not consider that he has misunderstood

Archbishop Aymond with regards to the issue of lowering the phone rates, or even that

the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops has a different opinion than Archbishop

Aymond he just implies that Mr. Tasman is lying and offers to meet him at confession.

Even if Mr. Skrmetta was entirely correct (and I’m not saying he was), this is

unprofessional behavior from start to finish.

Public officials take criticism every day, it’s part of their job. It’s not their job to

call people liars when they are testifying courteously about an issue they consider

important. In this case lowering the rates wouldn’t have put a single penny into Mr.

Tasman’s pocket. Louisiana’s bishops cared about the cost prisoners were paying to call

their loved ones and asked the PSC to lower the rates. Mr. Tasman seemingly testified

the bishops’ position to the best of his ability and he was called a liar, lectured to, and

accused of putting words into the Pope’s mouth. That’s just unacceptable.

A commissioner should treat everyone that comes before him or her with

courtesy, respect, and dignity. Mr. Skrmetta’s behavior falls well beneath the standard

of an elected official. The citizens of District 1 deserve better. I can promise to treat all

participants with courtesy, respect, and dignity. You should demand no less

Please forward this to anyone you know that lives in Louisiana. You can find all

of the daily entries on the “Campaign Diary” section of www.bigjohnmason.com if you

want to find a particular day’s diary entry. I will also be posting the diary on fb.

You can learn more about me by visiting my campaign website

at www.bigjohnmason.com, , email me at bigjohnmason1@gmail.com, call my campaign

line at (504) 509-0274, search for the Elect John Mason page on fb, listen to The Big

John Mason Show on wgso.com every Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:00 pm central time,

search for “The Big John Mason Show” on fb, or you can

visit https://wgso.com/category/podcast/the-big-john-mason-show/ for past shows.

LINKS:

1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnY7MZQ3-HQ&t=76s

2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT9MJHQuot8&t=93s

DAY 10

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary – Day 10, Why I’m Running – Part 3

Yesterday, in part 2 of this series, I continued my analysis of a Lee Zurik special report called “Louisiana Purchased” that talked about whether or not the utilities that are regulated by the Public Service Commission have undue influence over the actions of the commissioners by donating huge sums to the commissioner’s campaign funds. You can read the special report for yourself by clicking on link 1 below. If you haven’t read Part 1 and Part 2, please go to www.bigjohnmason.com and click on the daily blog link. It will make understanding this entry easier.

Lee Zurik, the investigative reporter, rightly states that the influence that the regulated industries can bring to bear on commissioners through campaign contributions raises a lot of questions. The report asks who these commissioners are looking out for - the power and phone companies giving them money or consumers paying those utility bills? That’s a good question. In this day and age more and more of the voting public doesn’t trust government, and shenanigans like I’ve outlined in these last few entries are a big reason why.

What do some of the commissioners themselves say about taking donations? Skrmetta is defiant: "They are not giving me money, they're not contributing to my campaign because they are trying to affect my vote." Foster Campbell also admits it looks bad. He said "I'm not saying it looks good. It puts a doubt on things.” I think most of my readers would agree with this. Commission Campbell further states "In a perfect world, it would be better for us not to take a dime from the companies we regulate. I think that would be best. Would it be hard? Yes. Is it possible? Yes." Commissioner Lambert Boissiere refused to even talk to reporters about the issue. It doesn’t seem like he has a clear conscience, either.

Note that Entergy New Orleans is regulated by the New Orleans City Council, not the Public Service Commission, and the councilmembers do not take contributions from Entergy New Orleans or its employees. Which one seems like the better policy: the PSC’s or the New Orleans City Council’s?

In fact, the state of Alabama prohibits its commissioners from accepting donations from utilities that it regulates. Lee Zurik asked Commissioner Skrmetta why Louisiana doesn’t have a similar rule, Commissioner Skrmetta replied “[i]f corruption is going to take place,

you cannot stop it.”

“IF CORRUPTION IS GOING TO TAKE PLACE, YOU CANNOT STOP IT!” – ERIC SKMETTA

So no one, not the Louisiana House and Senate, not the voters, not the media, not all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can stop corruption, at least not in Mr. Skrmetta’s opinion. He sees nothing wrong with taking $10,000 from a company that is in active negotiation with the PSC when Mr. Skrmetta accepts the money (see yesterday’s entry). Other current and past commissioners admit that this doesn’t look good to the general public, and that it should probably be prohibited, but not Mr. Skrmetta.

This is one of the main reasons I’m running. Let me put this as plainly as I can.

“YOU’RE WRONG MR. SKMETTA! VOTERS CAN STOP CORRUPTION BY ELECTING A COMMISSIONER THAT VALUES HONESTY, INTEGRITY AND TRANSPARENCY!” – BIG JOHN MASON

H.I.T. That stands for Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency. It’s something that I believe the Louisiana Public Service Commission could use a lot more of. You have a very simple choice in the PSC election. Six more years of alleged scandal, alleged taint, and the appearance of impropriety or you can choose someone that has a history of honesty, integrity, and transparency. One of the primary reasons that I’m writing this daily campaign diary is to demonstrate what the issues are, how they affect your financial bottom line, and why we need a new PSC commissioner by being as honest and transparent as I can.

Remember that this is just one scandal. There are plenty more, and I’m going to talk about them. We’ll revisit this “prison phone scandal” later on, and I’ll show you what independents and democrats thought about it when it was actually occurring. I’ll give you a hint: they thought it was pretty bad, too.

You can learn more about me by visiting my campaign website at www.bigjohnmason.com, , email me at bigjohnmason1@gmail.com, call my campaign line at (504) 509-0274, search for the Elect John Mason page on fb, listen to The Big John Mason Show on wgso.com every Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:00 pm central time, search for “The Big John Mason Show” on fb, or you can visit https://wgso.com/category/podcast/the-big-john-mason-show/ for past shows.

LINKS:

1) https://www.fox8live.com/2018/08/28/lee-zurik-investigation-are-utilities-real-power-behind-psc/

DAY 9

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary – Day 9, Why I’m Running – Part 2

Yesterday I talked about a Lee Zurik special report called “Louisiana Purchased” that talked about whether or not the utilities that are regulated by the Public Service Commission have undue influence over the actions of the commissioners by donating huge sums to the commissioner’s campaign funds. You can read the special report for yourself by clicking on link 1 below. The entry concluded by describing what many people call the “prison phone scandal”. To briefly summarize, a company called City Tele Coin had been caught breaking the rules. The company, which operates prison telephone systems, had violated a ban of fees on customer bills without seeking PSC approval. City Tele Coin admitted wrongdoing and was negotiating a penalty with the PSC. The company held a fundraiser for Commissioner Skrmetta in its headquarters. The company’s owner and his wife donated a total of $10,000 while the company was still negotiating its penalty. Based on a staff recommendation, the vote on the penalty was put off until early the following year.

I asked my readers a simple question, which I’ll repeat here. If you found out that a judge was about to pronounce sentence on a criminal who had confessed to the crime and that the criminal had donated $10,000 to the judge while the judge was deciding on the sentence, would you think that was perfectly fine? Most people would be outraged – I know I would be. This isn’t a perfect analogy, because breaking a PSC regulation is generally a civil offense and not a criminal one, but the analogy should get my point across.

The commissioner for the PSC’s District 5, Foster Campbell, was not happy with Mr. Skrmetta’s conduct. He told Lee Zurik: "They've broken our rules and they've been charged, and they're before the lawyers at the Public Service Commission for some heavy fines, I hope, for some of the things they've done. To have [Skrmetta] up to Bossier City, to have him up in his office... they didn't have it at a hotel or a house; they had it at their office. And they invited people to come in and give him money. And he's going to have a final say whether or not they're fined? It's a terrible conflict."

Despite his fellow commissioner’s outrage, Mr. Skrmetta was defiant. He said "It's not a conflict because, first off, the staff is negotiating the settlement. I'm not negotiating the settlement; I'm not bringing any influence to bear on the staff. I'm waiting for them to deliver unto us what they want to do. And it's my position right now, whatever the staff delivers to me, I'm fine with. "

This is a lawyer’s answer. I’m an attorney, and I’ve heard answers like this more times than I care to count. Mr. Skrmetta is asking us to believe that the $10,000 he just received doesn’t affect his decision in any way, shape, or form. He makes it seem like he’s not even communicating with his staff, he’s just waiting patiently for the staff to deliver their recommendation. Do you believe that? I don’t.

The worst part is the last sentence. He flat out states that he’s going to rubber stamp the staff’s recommendation whatever it is. I was a law clerk to a state judge. It’s true that she accepted most of my recommendations, but even when she accepted them she questioned me extensively. She wanted to know what the law said and she especially wanted to know my reasoning for a recommendation. Mr. Skrmetta doesn’t state that he’s going to question the staff or discuss the staff’s recommendation with any of the other commissioners. Does this seem like reasonable behavior to you?

Mr. Skrmetta doubled down on his defiance by stating: "They are not giving me money, they're not contributing to my campaign because they are trying to affect my vote. They're contributing to my campaign because I want a fair hearing, when they know they have a commissioner on the commission who is doing everything he can to exact personal revenge because of 2007, that they decided to support Bobby Jindal."

This is a classical blame shifting technique employed by children. “I didn’t take a cookie mommy, but Beth didn’t do her chores!” Mr. Skrmetta is stating that the donation is to ensure a fair hearing, but Commissioner Foster is just trying to exact personal revenge on a company that donated to Bobby Jindal over six years before Lee Zurik began his investigation. Your mother didn’t believe your misdirection when you were little, are you going to believe Mr. Skrmetta’s misdirection now?

Is Commissioner Skrmetta implying that if City Tele Coin had not contributed $10,000 to his campaign that City Tele Coin would not have had a fair hearing? Is that really how he wants to spin this?

Believe it or not, I’m still not finished, I’ll try and conclude my analysis of this scandal tomorrow, but I’ve hit my space limitation for today. Please check back tomorrow for the next part in the series. Trust me, I’m saving the best for last.

visit https://wgso.com/category/podcast/the-big-john-mason-show/ for past shows.

LINKS:

1) https://www.fox8live.com/2018/08/28/lee-zurik-investigation-are-utilities-real-power-behind-psc/

DAY 8

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary –Day 8, Why I’m Running – Part 1

Today I’m going to talk about why I’m running for District 1 of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. I interviewed Commissioner Skrmetta on my live radio show earlier this year. One of my callers asked why Commissioner Skrmetta had accepted so much money from the companies that he regulates. It seemed questionable to me that you would accept donations from a company and then rule on whether or not they could increase their rates, so I decided to do some research of my own. The remainder of this article relies heavily on a special report called “Louisiana Purchased” by investigative reporter Lee Zurik who reports on events in the Greater New Orleans area. Please click on link 1 below to read this article for yourself. It’s an older article from before the last election, so the figures cited are actually much higher today.

The first conclusion that Mr. Zurik makes is that “It turns out, the utilities and carriers themselves play a huge role in getting the commissioners elected.” He studied the public campaign finance reports and discovered that in the 4 years prior to his special report that commissioners raised about $1.5 million in campaign contributions and that $1 million, or about two-thirds, of this money came from regulated industries and other interested parties such as attorneys, lobbyists and consultants. He then goes on to describe that his research showed that Entergy had donated $41,000 to Commissioner Skrmetta.

Forest Wright, who was one of Mr. Skrmetta’s opponents last election, stated: “The utility companies recognize that the money they give to a candidate or to a sitting commissioner is an investment. These are very savvy business entities that are not charitable operations. They recognize that the dollars they spend need to be delivering results. And at the level that they make these contributions, one has to draw a clear line that they are doing so because they see a return on that investment.” Mr. Wright said he’d like to see PSC commissioners banned from taking money from the companies they regulate.

Former PSC Commissioner John Schwegmann said he believes that campaign contributions influence the PSC commissioners. He spent 16 years on the PSC and never accepted contributions from a company he regulated. Mr. Wright and Mr. Schwegmann are both former Democrats. There aren’t many things that I agree with them on, but this is one of them. If you donate $41,000 to me, you’re going to expect something in return. I don’t operate like that, and I have pledged not to accept donations from any company that is regulated by the PSC.

The real heart of the article, however, is what many people call the “prison phone scandal”. A company called City Tele Coin had been caught breaking the rules. The company, which operates prison telephone systems, had violated a ban of fees on customer bills without seeking PSC approval. City Tele Coin admitted wrongdoing and was negotiating a penalty with the PSC. The company held a fundraiser for Commissioner Skrmetta in its headquarters. The company’s owner and his wife donated a total of $10,000 while the company was still negotiating its penalty. Based on a staff recommendation, the vote on the penalty was put off until early the following year.

Let me ask the reader a question. If you found out that a judge was about to pronounce sentence on a criminal who had confessed to the crime and that the criminal had donated $10,000 to the judge while the judge was deciding on the sentence, would you think that was perfectly fine? Most people would be outraged – I know I would be. This isn’t a perfect analogy, because breaking a PSC regulation is generally a civil offense and not a criminal one, but the analogy should get my point across.

I have plenty more to say on this topic, but I’ve hit my space limitation for today. This will be continued over the next few days. It’s just the first example of questionable behavior by Commissioner Skrmetta over the twelve long years he’s been in office. Please check back tomorrow for the next part in the series.

LINKS:

1) https://www.fox8live.com/2018/08/28/lee-zurik-investigation-are-utilities-real-power-behind-psc/

DAY 7

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary –Day 7, The PSC Website – Part 2

In the last installment talked about the Public Service Commission’s website, but I didn’t get to finish in my allotted space. I was fairly harsh because the PSC website is unattractive, outdated, hard to navigate, and confusing to boot. I also described how I will fix some of those problems if I’m elected commissioner for District 1. Please note that websites change, so what I'm writing here may not match the site next month or even next week, but I’m guessing it will be mostly the same.

Again, as mentioned last time, please note that I am not blaming any one PSC commissioner in particular, but I am blaming all of them together. I know the commissioners are not responsible for designing or actually coding the website, but there’s absolutely no reason that any commissioner to be ignorant of the website. Just visit the website like I did and the problems will become apparent very quickly. I still haven’t explored every link on the PSC website, but I will before the election. Your tax dollars are paying for this, and you deserve better. WAY better.

I’m going to start by killing two birds with one stone. An astute reader pointed out that I’ve never formally described, apart from regulating electricity and natural gas, what the PSC actually regulates. I’ll quote the PSC website, or just click on link 1 below to read it for yourself. I’ve changed the font so you’ll know it’s from the PSC site.

The Louisiana Public Service Commission (LPSC) is an independent regulatory agency dedicated to serving the public interest by assuring safe, reliable, and reasonably-priced services for public utilities and common carriers. The LPSC consists of five elected Commissioners who serve overlapping terms of six years and a main office staff, created by Article IV, Section 21 of the 1921 Constitution of the State of Louisiana. It succeeded the Railroad Commission of Louisiana that was created by the 1898 Constitution. The overall goals of the Commission are to ensure a regulatory balance that enables utilities to provide customers with safe, adequate and reliable service, at rates that are just and reasonable, equitable and economically efficient, and that allow utilities an opportunity to earn a fair rate of return on their investment. The Commission provides a thorough but efficient regulatory process that is fair, open, encourages public participation, and anticipates the demands of an evolving regulatory environment. The Commission has jurisdiction over utilities providing electric, water, wastewater, natural gas, and telecommunication services, as well as all the electric cooperatives in Louisiana. The LPSC also regulates intrastate transportation services including passenger carrier services, waste haulers, household goods carriers, non-consensual towing, and intrastate pipelines. The companies under the Commission’s jurisdiction must obtain approval before instituting new rates, issuing stocks and bonds, transferring assets, and undertaking major construction projects such as additional power plants, transmission lines, etc. Municipally owned utilities are not under the jurisdiction of the Commission. LPSC implemented the "Do Not Call" Program throughout Louisiana on January 1, 2002. In addition, the Commission continues to take an active and cautious role in development of a competitive, market-based approach to utility regulation whenever such an approach is in the public interest.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the PSC in its own words. I come from a family of teachers, educators, and professors, and this makes me cringe. It’s a gigantic paragraph that combines a mission statement, history, a list of what regulated companies can’t do without PSC approval, a statement of the most popular PSC program, and ends with gobbledygook about development of a competitive market-based approach to regulation when such an approach is in the public interest. Yikes! What does this even mean? It’s poorly organized and clear as mud.

It’s also totally unacceptable.

The website is the first point of contact for people that need to access the Public Service Commission. People that need information from the PSC deserve better, especially in a crisis. People that want to learn about the PSC deserve better. Can you imagine the poor schoolchild that has to write about a government agency and is assigned the PSC?

If elected I promise to have a professional web designer to redo this monster. All links and phone numbers will be checked, and what the PSC does will be explained. Forms will be easier to find, etc. In other words, I want both residential and industrial consumers to be able to easily find the information they need. Using a governmental agency’s website should be straightforward. You shouldn’t have to muddle through this mess.

visit https://wgso.com/category/podcast/the-big-john-mason-show/ for past shows.

LINKS:

1) http://www.lpsc.louisiana.gov/aboutlpsc.aspx

DAY 6

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary –Day 6, The PSC Website – Part 1

In the last installment I gave you a brief summary on my position on deregulation. Today I’m going to talk about the Public Service Commission website with an emphasis on organization and timeliness. I’m going to criticize the site, because simply put, it’s not attractive, it’s outdated, and it’s hard to navigate to boot. It’s easy to criticize and never offer any solutions, so I’ll tell you what I’ll do for the website if I’m elected to be the commissioner for District 1. Please note that websites change, so what I'm writing here may not match the site next month. See the accompanying picture for what the website looks like as of Tuesday, September 8th.

Please note that I am not blaming any one PSC commissioner in particular, but I am blaming all of them together. I know the commissioners are not responsible for designing or actually coding the website, but there’s absolutely no reason that any commissioner to be ignorant of the website. Just visit the website like I did and the problems will become apparent very quickly. I still haven’t explored every link on the PSC website, but I will before the election. Your tax dollars are paying for this, and you deserve better. WAY better. That said, let’s dive right in and take a look at how well the PSC keeps you, the consumer, on what’s going on with the PSC and the industries it regulates.

To access the PSC website, just click on link 1 below.

The first thing you should notice is the far right of the page, labeled Most Recent News and Information. The bottom most entry is dated May 6, 2020 and the next one after that is July 1, 2020. That means there were no updates for almost two full months. The next update after July 1st was September 4th, which is more than two months! Given all the industries that the PSC regulates did nothing newsworthy happen for over two months? It turns out, of course, that there was news, but you have to scroll down and look at the bottom of the leftmost column and click on Press Releases to find it.

Hurricane Laura hit Lake Charles in the early morning hours of August 27th. The first news update regarding the hurricane that the PSC bothered to post was a full week later, on September 5th, when they posted a press release and an update from two parish electric cooperatives, the Jefferson Davis Electric Cooperative (JDEC) and the Beauregard Electric Cooperative, Inc (BECi). The first Entergy update was posted on September 7th. That is over a full week after Laura hit! There’s nothing from CLECO or SWEPCO, two major providers that serve the effected area. This just isn’t acceptable. Not at all. People from all over the state were glued to the TV looking for updates on the power and water situation in the affected areas. I will have the PSC staff contact these companies for the latest updates and make sure that the Most Recent News and Information section of the website is update multiple times a week, especially during an emergency situation. I will also include a link in this section directing you to the press release section for even more information. Link 2 below, for example, shows an article about CLECO’s efforts to restore power. I’m certain the staff of KATC would have been happy to have a link to this article on the PSC website.

Of course, you can also find some news by clicking on Consumer Info on the left side menu, then clicking New and Information on the submenu, or just click link 3 below. The first item is a link to Entergy’s website and describes how to spot scams on your electricity bill. This is a good article, but it underscores the point I made in the last paragraph. Where are the links to Entergy’s outage alerts and storms center? There on Entergy’s home page for crying out loud. Where are links to the other electricity providers?

Here’s some relevant consumer news and information: the 4th item on the list is an order issued by the PSC that permits companies to begin “the disconnection of customers of Commission-jurisdictional public utilities for non-payment of services in parishes placed under a declared state of emergency and/or a federally designated disaster areas”. Of course the order is from January, 2017 and is not related to Hurricane Laura. If you click on the 2nd link (i.e. the second most-recent post, which is dated 2018), you get a message stating “This E-Document has been deleted”. This “news” is actually pretty old.

The simple fact is that there are three separate areas for “news” on the PSC site and none of these areas mentions any of the others. They’re not really organized and this can cause confusion.

As I mentioned above, this site is stale, outdated, unorganized, confusing and just unattractive. Unfortunately, we’re not finished yet, but I’m out of space. More on the PSC website tomorrow, where we’ll take a look at how the PSC describes itself and it’s mission to serve the people of Louisiana. It’s not going to be pretty.

https://wgso.com/category/podcast/the-big-john-mason-show/ for past shows.

LINKS:

1) http://www.lpsc.louisiana.gov/

2) https://www.katc.com/news/covering-louisiana/power-restored-to-88-percent-of-customers-impacted-by-hurricane-laura-8-a-m-update

3) http://www.lpsc.louisiana.gov/consumernews.aspx

DAY 5

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary –Day 5, Deregulation (Part 2)

In the last installment we looked at the concept of deregulating Louisiana’s utilities. Today we’ll finish up talking about deregulation, at least for this week. If you haven’t already read Day 4, I strongly suggest you read it first.

Modern utility regulation by states dates back about 85 years. The U.S. congress passed the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. It gave the Securities and Exchange Commission the authority to regulate, license, and break up electric utility holding companies, as described in link 1 below. These holding companies were promptly limited to operating within a single state. The act was finally repealed by the Energy Power Act of 2005, see link 1. While this is only interesting to policy wonks like me, it explains why Entergy Louisiana, Entergy New Orleans, Entergy Arkansas, Entergy Mississippi, Entergy Texas, and Entergy Nuclear are all subsidiaries of

Entergy, since it was required by law.

Things have changed since over the last 85 years, of course. Today 27 states have deregulated to one degree or another, while 33 states, including Louisiana are still regulated, see link 2 below. Almost every state that deregulated did so between 1995 and 2005. I talked yesterday about how Louisiana last seriously considered deregulation was in 1999. Not a single one of the commissioners that voted on the issue is still on the PSC. Several of the PSC seats have had multiple occupants since then, yet deregulation has not been considered in over 20 years.

Most Americans know that monopolies aren’t good for consumers, yet government seems to love regulated monopolies. Electricity, natural gas, and cable TV (note: cable TV is not regulated by the PSC) are all government regulated monopolies, and they all affect the lives of almost everyone. This doesn’t change the fact that competition lowers prices. I want to stress that, as link 2 describes, no state has an energy market that is completely deregulated. Deregulation does not mean elimination of laws against fraud or pollution, but it does eliminate or reduce government control of how business is done, thereby moving toward a freer market. Simply put YOU get choose the provider for gas and electricity that comes to your home or business or even to generate the power yourself. As a conservative I believe in minimal regulations. Once the public is protected with minimal regulations (for example anti-fraud and anti-pollution) then let the consumer make their own choices. I believe in capitalism, competition, the free market, and the right of the people to choose what’s best for themselves.

I’ve been emphasizing the price of gas and electricity because it’s only natural to be concerned about the cost of utilities. After all, they’re generally the second highest monthly expense for most Louisiana citizens. Even if you can’t see it because the cost of utilities is included in your rent, believe me, it does affect you. But price isn’t the only consideration. Louisiana is subject to devastating hurricanes, and Hurricane Laura has brought the issue of storm-hardened lines to the public eye. Many people feel that the PSC should require storm-hardened lines. The Louisiana legislature may have to pass a law before this can happen, but it may be a good idea if Louisiana sticks with the government regulated monopoly model that we currently have.

Now imagine that we deregulate. It’s possible that a consumer now has multiple choices. For example you could choose to pay more for energy from a company that uses only storm-hardened lines to ensure your home or business always has power. You might choose to pay less and use a company that uses unprotected lines because you live in an inland area that has a low storm risk. You might choose the middle ground and select a company whose coastal lines are storm-hardened, but interior lines are unprotected. It may even be that the same company offers all three options. The point is that YOU decide what’s best for your life.

Jeff Sadow is an Associate Professor of Political Science at LSU Shreveport. His excellent “Louisiana Needs to Deregulate Energy Sales Soon” blog post, see link 3 below, describes why he believes Louisiana should deregulate. I highly recommend reading it.

LINKS:

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Utility_Holding_Company_Act_of_1935#:~:text=The%20Public%20Utility%20Holding%20Company,up%20electric%20utility%20holding%20companies

2) https://www.electricchoice.com/map-deregulated-energy-markets/

3) https://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2020/01/la-needs-to-deregulate-energy-sales-soon.html#more

DAY 4

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary –Day 4, Deregulation (Part 1)

In the last installment we looked at a large Entergy rate increase to pay for new electrical plants that may be coming soon. Two PSC commissioners are up for reelection, and these commissioners will have an important role in determining the fate of these rate increases. Today I talk about one of the many reasons why I think you should elect me to replace Eric Skrmetta for the PSC District 1.

Last time we talked about a Entergy’s testimony in front of the Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) stating that some facilities are almost 50 years old and they estimate it will take 10 to 12 BILLION dollars to build new plants. Entergy is a regulated monopoly and, by law, those costs are all paid for by the consumer. We talked about every alternative, except the most controversial one, deregulation.

Let me take a moment to talk about the difference between deregulation and unregulated. “Deregulation” is defined as the reduction or elimination of government power in a particular industry, usually enacted to create more competition within the industry, see link 1. Proponents of deregulation argue that overbearing legislation reduces investment opportunity and stymies economic growth, causing more harm than it helps as described in link 1. This isn’t the same as being unregulated! A business may be subject to 500 regulations and a deregulation program might reduce this number to 100. Sometimes deregulation may result in an industry being unregulated, and many articles about the subject don’t make it very clear if they are in favor of reducing regulations or eliminating them altogether, so be careful in your research.

An article in the Baton Rouge edition of The Advocate, see link 2 below, briefly describes a discussion that took place almost 40 years ago in the 1980s and 1990s about whether or not to allow people and businesses buy their electricity from whomever they want on the open market, or even generate their own power. The last time the PSC even considered deregulation was way back in 1999 when it decided that due to the cost of the infrastructure needed to deliver electricity, that utilities should continue to operate as monopoly – meaning no competition allowed in specific geographic service areas – and regulation of the price of power.

This policy has been in place for generations now. PSC commissioners review and approve business decisions made by privately owned utilities. The theory is that the utilities are allowed to make a reasonable profit while keeping the price low for consumers. These regulations are extensive. A public utility is not allowed to raise rates, issue stock, buy a bond, or even sell an asset without approval from the PSC. Link 3 shows an application from Entergy to transfer control of “certain transmission assets” to another utility. You should probably only read this if you have severe insomnia.

Jeff Sadow, an Associate Professor of Political Science at LSU Shreveport, wrote a blog article entitled “Louisiana Needs to Deregulate Energy Sales Soon”, which can be found by clicking on link 3 below, and I highly recommend reading it. He makes three excellent points. The first point is while deregulation won’t solve every problem, states that deregulated, which typically had higher costs, have seen a lower percentage increase in prices since deregulation – 47 percent (after deregulation) compared to 64 percent.

The second point is that if large commercial users find they can lower costs by buying energy in the marketplace, that could relax demand on Entergy and mean that it doesn’t have to replace as much power capacity. In turn, this would lower future rates for all consumers. If enough customers buy their power elsewhere, then maybe Entergy will only need 8 to 10 billion dollars instead of 10 to 12 billion.

The third point is the most important one. Simply put, the longer the PSC takes to make a decision on this issue, the less time remains for Entergy to make capacity-replacement decisions. He points out that the lack of deregulated markets already locked Entergy’s New Orleans subsidiary (which is controlled by the City of New Orleans, not the PSC) into committing to a new gas-powered generator, which caused a lot of controversy when Entergy hired actors to fill the New Orleans city council’s chambers to advocate for approval from the city.

There’s more to be said on this issue, but I’ve filled up my available space, so this will be continued in tomorrow’s entry.

You can learn more about me by visiting my campaign website at www.bigjohnmason.com, , email me at bigjohnmason1@gmail.com, call my campaign line at (504) 509-0274, listen to The Big John Mason Show on wgso.com every Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:00 pm central time, search for “The Big John Mason Show” on facebook, and you can visit https://wgso.com/category/podcast/the-big-john-mason-show/ for past shows.

LINKS:

1) https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/deregulate.asp

2) https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_031e956c-21f7-11ea-accd-87ceddc43c9d.html

https://jeffsadow.blogspot.com/2020/01/la-needs-to-deregulate-energy-sales-soon.html#more

DAY 3

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest Government Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary –Day 3, The PSC and Your Wallet

In the last installment we looked at the composition of the Public Service Commission, how to determine what district you live in, and the election itself. Today I’m going to give talk about something really important to you, keeping money in your pocket. For most people utility bills, especially electricity and gas, are the second largest monthly expense. Both industries are regulated by the PSC.

My main source for today is an article from the Baton Rouge edition of The Advocate entitled “Entergy Bills are Likely to Rise, and Officials are Trying to Find How to Stop it From Happening”, which you can read by clicking on link 1 below. I’ve verified a lot of the information contained in the article by reading testimony made to the PSC, as well as other sources.

Let’s start with a question. Would you be happy with a 50% increase to your electricity bill? That’s exactly what could happen according to testimony by The Louisiana Energy Users Group, a consortium of two dozen of Louisiana’s largest companies. They also happen to be Entergy’s largest in-state customers, and they’re not happy about this.

Entergy testified that some production facilities are approaching 50 years of age, and they need to be replaced at an estimated cost of ten to twelve BILLION DOLLARS. As a regulated monopoly the law requires that Entergy’s customers must pay these costs. That’s right, YOU have to pay these costs. You and every other person and business that is required to purchase service from Entergy must pay for building these new plants. Commissioner Skremetta likes to brag that Louisiana’s electricity rates are very low. A 50% increase in your bill would certainly change that.

Can this rate increase be stopped? The PSC directed their staff to look at all the options available, including enlarging the use of electricity made from renewable sources, such as wind and sun, and expanding programs to help pay for making homes and businesses more energy efficient. I’m not opposed to renewable sources of energy, but the bottom line is that it’s still more expensive to generate renewable energy like solar power or wind power. We’re not likely to see a rate reduction if renewable power costs more to generate. I hope that one day renewable energy costs the same (or even less) than non-renewable energy, but we’re just not at that point yet. Likewise making new homes and businesses more energy efficient is great for future development, but it doesn’t help existing homes and businesses. Paying to retrofit existing homes and businesses may save money in the long run, but it means up-front money now, and that’s not an attractive option.

Entergy also suggested various tariffs. Keeping energy rates low via tariffs, fees, and taxes is just shifting costs to residents and businesses, not actually lowering them.

There was one other option that was considered, and it was by far the most controversial one: allowing large industrial customers to fend for themselves by seeking better electricity prices on the “open market” and/or letting the plants and refineries make their own power, aka deregulation.

This was the position favored by The Louisiana Energy Group. A medium-sized industrial plant uses about the same amount of power per day as the City of Monroe. The state’s largest petro-chemical refineries and manufacturing plants purchase about half of the power that Entergy sells. They don’t have a choice about who to buy from, and they argue that the projected costs are too high and they want out.

In the end, as noted above, the PSC directed their staff to study the options. Normally, I’m all in favor of studying the options. As an attorney I research the law and court cases on the issue extensively before forming a strategy. Information really is power. On the other hand, the PSC can’t really afford to keep delaying a decision. Energy costs are critical to the future of Louisiana’s economy. Lower energy costs generally result in lower prices for consumers, while higher costs mean the opposite. This kind of feels like kicking the can down the road, a favorite strategy of politicians that don’t want to be held accountable for making a decision. We’ve all seen how well this works in the real world.

Should Louisiana residents and business have a right to purchase power on the open market? Should they have a right to generate their own power? Those who know me well already know how I’d answer that question, otherwise you’ll have to wait until tomorrow’s entry. Cliffhanger alert!

You can learn more about me by visiting my campaign website at www.bigjohnmason.com, , email me at bigjohnmason1@gmail.com, call my campaign line at (504) 509-0274, listen to The Big John Mason Show on wgso.com every Tuesday and Wednesday at 1:00 pm central time, search for “The Big John Mason Show” on fb, and you can visit https://wgso.com/category/podcast/the-big-john-mason-show/ for past shows.

LINKS:

1) https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/article_031e956c-21f7-11ea-accd-87ceddc43c9d.html

DAY 2

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest, Most Important Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary –Day 2

In the last installment we gave a brief description of some of the functions of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. We revisit this topic later, but today we’ll focus on the composition of the PSC, how to determine what district you’re in, and the election itself.

The PSC is divided into five districts as shown by the map on the left. If you’d like to see a larger version of the map, please see link 1 below.

The first thing you’ll notice is that four of the PSC districts are huge. All of the districts are gerrymandered and, except for District 3, they are larger than any congressional district. I’m running for District 1, which is the area shown in green. The District 5 seat, which is currently held by Democrat Foster Campbell is also up for election, while Districts 2, 3, and 4 are not up for election this year. Since the current make up of the PSC is 3 Republicans and 2 Democrats, this is an important election.

Since the PSC terms are six years long, the last chance the residents of District 1 had a chance to choose their commissioner was back in 2014, when almost 240,000 people voted and the difference between the two candidates was only about 4,000. That’s right, there was only about 1% difference between the candidates. Since this year features a presidential election and a U.S. senate election it’s expected that turnout in 2020 will be even larger, with perhaps about 250,000 votes.

You’ll notice that District 1 is composed of parts of ELEVEN different parishes. For example, about a third of Ascension Parish (geographically) is in District 1, while the rest is in District 3. How do you know which district you’re in? If you live in St. Tammany, Tangipahoa, Washington, St. Helena, St. Bernard or Plaqumines Parish, then you’re in District 1. If you live in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Charles, Ascension, Livingston Parish, then you’ll have to check, since those parishes are split into multiple districts.

Click the following link to go to the Louisiana Secretary of State’s website and enter your information: https://voterportal.sos.la.gov/Home/VoterLogin. Now click on the 4th link down in the left column, which is labeled “My Districts”, and you’ll see the districts that you live in. Your PSC district is the 12th district listed. As mentioned above, if you live in

District 1 or District 5, you’ve got an important decision to make.

We’ll talk about why it’s such an important decision in tomorrow’s entry, but I’ll give you a hint: the electricity bill is the second or third highest monthly expense for most residents of Louisiana. When the PSC decides to raise your rates it hits you right in the wallet. There are other reasons as well, so we’ll start to look at the functions of the PSC starting tomorrow.

shows.

LINKS:

1) http://www.lpsc.louisiana.gov/DistrictMapPage.aspx

DAY 1

The Louisiana Platypus – A Strange Political Animal

The Oddest, Largest, Most Important Agency You’ve Never Heard Of

A Campaign Diary – Day 1

What does your electricity bill, moving your family from New Orleans to Baton Rouge, your waste hauler, being towed after an automobile accident, and telephone calls to and from a Louisiana prison all have in common? The answer is that the companies that provide these services are all regulated by the Louisiana Public Service Commission (see link 1 below), a powerful governmental regulatory agency that has an impact on the lives of Louisiana’s citizens, even though many people know very little if anything about the commission. Very few of the people the author has talked to were aware of the PSC, and even fewer can name the commissioner for their district.

What does any of this have to do with a duck-billed platypus? The duck-billed platypus is one of the most unique, oddest mammals in existence. It lays eggs instead of giving live birth, it’s one of the few poisonous mammals, and uses electrolocation to find prey. This duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal was so different from other mammals that the first European scientists to study a platypus corpse declared it to be a fake that was made by sewing other corpses together (see link 2 below).

Other states have governmental agencies that regulate public utilities such as electricity and natural gas, but none have control over so many entities that seemingly have no relation whatsoever. Just as the duck-billed platypus astounded the first western scientists to study it, learning about the Louisiana Public Service Commission really surprises most people.

This article is also the first installment of a daily campaign diary. I’m Big John Mason, and I’m running for the District 1 seat of the Louisiana Public Service Commission. My goal is to teach Louisianans (and anyone else that may be interested) about the Louisiana PSC and how it affects their daily lives. I think you may be surprised about what you learn.

Tomorrow’s installment will describe the five PSC districts, which ones are up for election, and the election itself. Any feedback on the series is welcome. I promise to keep it simple, with each installment being about a page or so of text (not counting graphics).

Please forward this to anyone you know that lives in Louisiana. You can find all of the daily entries on the “Campaign Diary” section of www.bigjohnmason.com under the daily blog section. I will also be posting the diary entries daily on facebook.

LINKS:

1) http://www.lpsc.louisiana.gov/aboutlpsc.aspx

2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platypus