The Energy Markets Podcast EMP S3E3: Davante Lewis, newly elected to the Louisiana PSC, talks about his mission to ensure the clean-energy transition is a just transition
Davante Lewis credits grassroots community organizing and coalition building for helping him defeat a long-time incumbent to garner a seat on the five-member Louisiana Public Service Commission. Lewis – who professes he's a regulator and "policy nerd" and not a politician – aspires to assuring the clean-energy transition is also a just transition. He wants to transform his Louisiana district's descriptor from "Cancer Alley" to "Answer Alley" by promoting jobs and jobs training to support rapid growth in renewable energy sources, providing a model for a just clean-energy transition nationally.
Lewis has a Ratepayer's Bill of Rights that addresses punitive late fees and service cutoffs that disproportionately and adversely affect lower-income communities. He also looks to create a consumer advocate position that represents ratepayer interests in cases before the commission. He wants to bring the community into PSC open meetings along with the more typical crowd of lobbyists, lawyers and other utility industry interests. "I'm going to bring the people back in these rooms."
Lewis wants to engage in a dialogue with the natural gas, oil refining and petrochemical industry interests in his district – as well as the utility industry interests he ran against as a candidate – confident that, while they may not agree, they will come to understand one another and work productively together.
He calls for an all-of-the-above strategy in a just clean-energy transition, but particularly eyes rooftop solar and battery storage and offshore wind for Louisiana. In developing an all-inclusive strategy, Lewis says "competition and deregulation" will be a key component of discussion over the next three years. "People want competition because they want choices."
But while he sees carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) becoming a priority for some in Baton Rouge, potentially affecting the role of the commission, call Lewis deeply skeptical but open to being persuaded by science showing the proposed technology to be "the safest way to handle environmental and consumer concerns."