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Gov. Hutchinson: Net Metering Surcharge Should Be Fair

File photo of Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Michael Hibblen
/
KUAR News
File photo of Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
File photo of Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Credit Michael Hibblen / KUAR News
/
KUAR News
File photo of Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

The Arkansas Public Service Commission met Tuesday to consider changes to regulations on the process by which homeowners with solar panels or windmills can sell electricity back to utilities. At question was whether small-scale energy producers who take advantage of the process known as "net metering" would have to pay to access the grid.

Gov.Asa Hutchinson weighed in on the issue, as he answered questions from reporters in a joint press conferencewith Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin at the meeting of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) on Monday.

Hutchinson said he has confidence the PSC will approach their decision fairly, noting that utilities and customers need a “technology or a capacity” to efficiently transfer electricity between sources, and funding for it could come from a net metering surcharge.

“To me the question is not whether it should be done but what’s the fair way to do it because the energy companies have invested in their transmission lines, the rate payers have paid for that. So how do you balance the cost-sharing of it? That’s going to be the tough issue for the PSC and I leave that into their hands,” Hutchinson said.

Hutchinson appointed PSC Chairman Ted Thomas in 2015. The other two commissioners, Elana Willis and Lamar Davis were appointed by former Gov. Mike Beebe.

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Chris Hickey was born and raised in Houston, Texas, spending his teenage years in Camden, Ohio. He graduated from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, majoring in English. He got his start in public radio working as a board operator at WMUB in Oxford, Ohio during his summer and winter breaks from school. Since graduating, he has made Little Rock home. He joined KUAR in September 2011 as a production intern and has since enjoyed producing, anchoring and reporting for the station. He is the composer of KUAR's Week-In-Review Podcast theme music and the associate producer of Arts & Letters.