I attended the recent public meeting hosted by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska to learn more about Homer Electric Association’s drive to become an unregulated monopoly. But there was only one problem — HEA failed to show up. It’s unfortunate that our public utility sees no need to answer questions from the public, their ratepayers. I also attended one of the HEA-sponsored public meetings and it was not an objective, unbiased forum; it was more like an infomercial.

What does HEA have to hide? We know HEA’s debt has ballooned to more than $363 million and somehow we need to pay that all off. But if HEA becomes an unregulated monopoly, the only way to challenge increased electricity rates will be in court. There are two sides to this issue. Rate payers need to inform themselves about both sides and not rely on the one-sided propaganda HEA is feeding us.

Our chance to vote on this will arrive in the mail soon.

Mako Haggerty