It's time for a smarter, more affordable energy plan | Opinion
Flip a switch and the lights turn on. For most of us, that is the extent of our relationship with our local electric utility. We pay the bill at the end of the month and rarely question how that power was generated, where it came from, or how the system that provided it will look two decades from now. It’s time to look beyond the light switch. Behind the scenes in late October, in stuffy government buildings in Las Vegas and Reno, the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) considered a high-stakes blueprint that will dictate how much we pay each month, the quality of our air, and if our lights will stay on during extreme heat for the foreseeable future. They are reviewing utility NV Energy’s long-term plan to meet future energy demand. It’s called an Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP. Every NV Energy customer needs to pay attention to it. The plan the utility proposes is flawed. It locks us into a system that puts us on the hook for risky utility investments. Regulators should instead opt for a system that lets us take control of where our energy comes from. Think of the IRP as a multibillion-dollar
