The Public Counsel Section, established by the Legislature, represents the citizens of Washington in utility matters such as rates, services and practices before the Washington Utilities & Transportation Commission and state courts.
Only telephone, electric and natural gas utilities owned by investors or stockholders are regulated by the state and therefore involve Public Counsel. Included among those utilities are Puget Sound Energy (formerly Puget Power and Washington Natural Gas), Avista (formerly Washington Water Power), Pacific Power, Qwest (formerly US West), and Verizon (formerly GTE).
Public Counsel is not involved with publicly owned utilities such as Seattle City Light and Snohomish Public Utility District, which are not regulated by the state.
Public Counsel routinely seeks the advice of independent, expert consultants to analyze utility issues in areas such as accounting, economics, finance, engineering, and rate design. Public Counsel researches utility regulation issues and decides what action should be taken on behalf of the public. In a major rate case, Public Counsel obtains information from the utility, other parties and the public, retains expert consultants to analyze the case, cross-examines expert witnesses, presents its own witnesses, and files legal briefs.
Representing the citizens in utility matters means advocating for the interests of consumers in a variety of ways including filing as a statutory party in major rate cases at the Commission; making presentations at bi-weekly Commission business meetings; participating in technical study groups; making court appeals; and providing information to the Legislature and other policy makers.
Public Counsel is not staffed to respond to individual complaints or inquiries; we encourage consumers in need of this type of specific assistance (e.g. a specific service or billing complaint) to contact the Consumer Affairs Department of the WUTC.
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