A look at Davante Lewis’ first day serving as Public Service Commissioner, addressing high Entergy costs and more

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - You may not have your air conditioning on in our January mornings, but that may change as the day goes on. With temperatures creeping to almost 80 degrees, it’s not too uncommon in south Louisiana.

Many of you at home are continuing to feel the sweat when you look at your Entergy bills. That’s part of the discussion the Public Service Commission is having on Jan. 18. It starts at 9 a.m. at the Galvez Building in downtown Baton Rouge.

Newly-elected Public Service Commissioner for District 3 Davante Lewis said he’s asking utility companies like Entergy the tough questions.

Lewis said he wants to center people. He said he ran for this office because he felt so many of you were being left out of the conversation when it came to utilities.

“I’m having a very very strong eye to make sure that we are doing the maximum that we can to protect our consumers,” said Lewis. “I’m not so much interested in the bottom line. I’m not interested in their shareholders as much. But I want to make sure that we are not cutting corners to ensure that there’s a maximum profit margin by leaving the people of Louisiana behind.”

He said he has taken your concerns and presented them to Entergy’s executives and CEO at least three times so far.

Another big priority for the PSC is how they can lower the phone call rates of the people who have been incarcerated. This is very costly right now. Since this falls under the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission, Lewis is hopeful they can come up with a solution fast.

At Wednesday’s meeting, they’ll elect a vice chair of the commission and discuss a proposal from Entergy. The company is asking for more than one billion dollars to help them recover storm damage costs from Hurricane Ida.

“Too often times the Public Service Commission has kind of been a defacto answer to the utility companies, and I don’t believe in that,” said Lewis. “I believe my job is not just to be there to do what they say, but it’s to regulate them. And regulation means sometimes you have to go against the system and against the grain.”

He’s hopeful you stay engaged and go to the Public Service Commission’s website. Come in person if you can downtown.

The meetings are also live-streamed on YouTube.

You can see the full agenda here.

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