KMU Dispatch
Posted on August 10, 2018

Mayor David Alvey of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County was recently appointed the ViceChair of the American Public Power Association’s Policymaker Committee (PMC). The PMC is made up of 45 members, which include elected or appointed officials on the governing bodies of public power communities. Kansas is also represented on the APPA Policymaker Committee by Mayor Stan Luke of the City of Burlington.

Ben Kostick, a commissioner with Public Utility District No. 1 of Lewis County, Washington, assumed the chairmanship of the PMC while in Washington, D.C., for a committee meeting and Capitol Hill visits. The PMC meets twice a year in Washington, D.C., and visits with elected representatives and congressional staff on issues critical to public power.

In their meetings with lawmakers and staff this month, PMC members highlighted a number of priority issues for the public power community. In particular, they emphasized public power’s opposition to S. 3157 (The STREAMLINE Small Cell Deployment Act), which would repeal the public power exemption from Federal Communications Commission pole attachment regulations. The measure is sponsored by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.

Other priority issues highlighted by PMC members in their visits to Capitol Hill included:

• The need to fix Regional Transmission Organization-run wholesale electricity markets;
• Enabling strong industry-government partnerships to prevent, prepare for and respond to cyber and physical attacks to the grid;
• Supporting the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to develop environmental regulations that work; and
• Supporting tax-exempt municipal bond-funded electric system investments.