Indiana Urged to Promote Electric Choice

The Retail Energy Supply Association (RESA), the nation’s leading organization representing competitive retail energy suppliers, has formally urged Indiana state lawmakers to consider legislation that would allow the state’s energy consumers to choose their electricity supplier. At the least, RESA proposes that the state of Indiana should conduct a broad investigation of the potential benefits associated with electric industry restructuring.

To date, sixteen states in the United State have some level of competitive energy markets including: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Oregon, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Texas.

“Given that residential, commercial, governmental, and industrial customers could greatly benefit from the new opportunities offered by retail competition, it is important to evaluate new policy options, and learn from the success of retail competition in the U.S. rather than blindly maintaining an old monopolistic system that inherently results in inefficiency and higher costs for retail customers,” RESA member companies said in a letter to state lawmakers.

“Customers should be afforded the ability and information to make their own decisions and choices regarding their electric power needs just as they do with telecommunications, natural gas, and airlines all of which were previously regulated under a protected monopoly system of price regulation,” RESA said.

The letter notes that Indiana lawmakers need only look across the state border to Illinois and Ohio to see the benefits of retail electricity competition at work. Those states have seen their electricity rates fall below the national average as a result of retail competition.

“We have customers in neighboring states with competition who are asking for customer choice for their facilities in Indiana, and we are as eager to serve them as they are to have a choice in energy supply,” said RESA President Melissa Lauderdale.

RESA supports the creation and advancement of competitive energy markets throughout the country. RESA’s members represent the interests of a broad and diverse group of retail energy suppliers who share the common vision that competitive retail energy markets deliver a more efficient, customer-oriented outcome than a price-regulated utility structure.