Below is a press release from the Mississippi Public Service Commission:
During a special meeting, Chairman Dane Maxwell and fellow Public Service Commissioners heard presentations from Mississippi’s major utilities and industry experts on how the global market is affecting utility rates for customers in Mississippi.
“I called this work session in order to hear directly from our state’s major utilities about where they stand financially and economically, and how global impacts like rising gas prices will affect Mississippians both today and moving forward,” Chairman Dane Maxwell said. “With everything going on in the country and globally, it is difficult to accurately forecast future costs, but we wanted to be proactive and prepared to work on keeping rates as low as possible.”
Presentations were given by representatives of Atmos Energy, CenterPoint Energy, Entergy Mississippi, Mississippi Power Company, and United Professionals Company (an independent industry expert) on issues concerning current and future fuel and natural gas costs, fuel diversity, and company plans and projections.
“I believe it is important for our state to have diverse energy sources, and I’ve encouraged the companies to keep all fuel options on the table to better our chances of levelized costs for Mississippi customers,” Chairman Dane Maxwell added.
The goal of this work session is to continue working alongside our major utilities to minimize the global effects to energy prices and continue protecting Mississippi customers in the future.
