The national media is currently hyperventilating over a specific brand of Louisiana political drama. The narrative is predictably neat: a Republican-led legislature is moving to abolish an elected position on the Public Service Commission (PSC) just as a formerly incarcerated, exonerated man, Gary Chambers, won the seat. It makes for a great David vs. Goliath headline. It hits all the right notes for "outrage" clicks.
But it’s a total distraction.
The real scandal isn't that the GOP wants to change the rules of the game now that they’ve lost a seat. The real scandal is that we have been letting five elected politicians—most of whom couldn't explain the difference between a kilowatt-hour and a British Thermal Unit—dictate the energy future of an entire state for a century.
Louisiana doesn't need a more "representative" Public Service Commission. Louisiana needs to burn the entire commission to the ground and replace it with a professional, appointed regulatory body that prioritizes grid reliability and market competition over political grandstanding.
The Myth of the "People’s Watchdog"
The standard argument for an elected PSC is that it keeps utility companies accountable to the voters. This is a fairy tale.
In reality, elected commissions are the most efficient machines for regulatory capture ever devised. When you elect utility regulators, you aren't empowering the "people." You are creating a market where the primary currency is campaign contributions from the very industries being regulated.
Data from the National Institute on Money in Politics consistently shows that utility companies, solar lobbyists, and pipeline conglomerates are the primary donors to these races. Why? Because the average voter has no idea what the PSC does. Voter turnout for down-ballot regulatory races is abysmal, often dipping below 15% in non-presidential years.
When the electorate is tuned out, the only people left in the room are the special interests. An elected commissioner isn't a watchdog; they are a politician who needs a war chest for the next election. In a state like Louisiana, where energy is the lifeblood of the economy, this creates a feedback loop of corruption that spans both sides of the aisle.
The Gary Chambers Distraction
The sudden urgency to "protect" the sanctity of this office because Gary Chambers won it is a classic case of mistaken priorities.
Chambers is a professional activist. His supporters view his win as a triumph for civil rights and a check on corporate power. His detractors view it as a threat to the state’s industrial stability. Both groups are wrong because they are viewing a technical regulatory role through a purely ideological lens.
The PSC oversees complex rate cases, integrated resource plans (IRPs), and the delicate balancing of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) grid. These are not matters of "social justice" or "conservative values." They are matters of physics, engineering, and capital expenditure modeling.
By turning the PSC into a battleground for identity politics, both the GOP and the Democrats are admitting that they don't care about your electricity bill. They care about the seat as a trophy. If the legislature succeeds in making the position appointed, they aren't "destroying democracy." They are accidentally stumbling into a more functional governance model, albeit for the wrong reasons.
Why Appointed Boards Win Every Time
Look at the states that actually lead in energy innovation and price stability. They don't leave their grid to the whims of a popularity contest.
States like Texas (via the Public Utility Commission of Texas) and even high-regulation states like New York use appointed boards. While no system is immune to influence, appointed regulators are generally required to meet specific professional qualifications. They are often lawyers, economists, or engineers.
In Louisiana, the only qualification to run for the PSC is being 18 years old and living in the district.
Imagine applying this logic to any other high-stakes field. Would you want the board of directors for a nuclear power plant to be elected by a popular vote of people who think "nuclear" is a scary word? Would you want your heart surgeon chosen via a grassroots social media campaign?
Of course not. Yet, we allow the people responsible for the $20 billion infrastructure decisions that determine whether your AC stays on during a Category 4 hurricane to be chosen based on their ability to cut a viral campaign ad.
The "Cost of Living" Lie
Critics of the move to abolish the elected seat claim that an appointed board will lead to skyrocketing rates.
Let’s look at the numbers. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Louisiana historically has some of the lowest electricity rates in the country. Activists point to this as proof the elected PSC works.
This is a correlation/causation fallacy. Louisiana has low rates because it is sitting on a massive pile of natural gas and has a massive industrial base that provides "economies of scale" for utilities. It has nothing to do with the "toughness" of the commissioners.
In fact, the elected PSC has been a bottleneck for grid modernization. Because commissioners are terrified of any rate increase that might be weaponized against them in a 30-second attack ad, they often defer necessary maintenance and grid hardening. They trade long-term reliability for short-term political survival.
When the grid fails—as it did spectacularly during Hurricane Ida—the politicians point fingers at the utilities. But the utilities are just following the incentives the PSC created. An appointed board has the political cover to make the "expensive" decisions now that prevent a "catastrophic" cost later.
Dismantling the Partisan Theater
The Republican legislature's attempt to restructure the PSC is transparently partisan. They are tired of losing ground. But the Democratic outcry is equally cynical. They aren't defending "the voters"; they are defending a rare power center they finally managed to occupy.
If we want to actually "disrupt" this system, we have to stop treating the PSC like a mini-legislature.
- Mandate Technical Expertise: Every commissioner should have a minimum of 10 years of experience in energy law, utility economics, or power engineering.
- Remove the Campaign Trail: Ban all contributions from regulated entities, their employees, and their PACs. (Good luck getting an elected official to vote for that).
- Shift to an Appointed Model: Have the Governor appoint commissioners with Senate confirmation, mimicking the federal model used by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
This isn't about silencing Gary Chambers. It’s about recognizing that the era of the "citizen regulator" is dead. The energy landscape of 2026—with distributed energy resources, EVs, and a crumbling national bridge—is too complex for a populist orator or a party hack.
The Hard Truth About Accountability
Accountability in an elected system is an illusion. You can vote a guy out every four years, but by then, the $500 million mistake he approved for a legacy coal plant is already baked into your bill for the next thirty years.
True accountability comes from transparency, rigorous evidentiary hearings, and judicial review—not from who can shout the loudest at a rally in Baton Rouge.
The GOP's "race" to eliminate the office might be motivated by spite, but the outcome is a necessary evolution. We should be cheering for the professionalization of the utility space, even if the people leading the charge have messy motives.
Stop falling for the "democracy in peril" bait. Start asking why we ever thought electing the people who set your thermostat was a good idea in the first place.
Louisiana doesn't need more "representatives" on the commission. It needs fewer politicians.
Shut it down. All of it.
