Published Oct 16, 2008
Green Party candidate Rick Lass is running against Democratic Party candidate Jerome Block Jr. in the Nov. 4 election for the state Public Regulation Commission District 3 seat. Block participated in a questionnaire prior to the primary that is why his answers do not appear this week. A race profile will be published in next week’s issue.
1. If elected, what would you do to encourage utilities to use more sources of renewable energy?
First of all, I’d make sure that all the co-ops and investor-owned utilities are working to achieve the standards that have already been set by the legislature by making sure we check in with them on a regular basis and don’t come to 2015 to find out there’s no way they can do it. I’d also wanna work with the legislature to increase some of these standards.
2. How can you help keep utility costs down in rural areas where a lot of infrastructure is required to serve a small population?
One thing we can do is encourage people to have their own rooftop solar generators for electricity in their own homes and look at smaller grid sizes. Instead of having these huge power plants that are producing electricity and then have long transmission lines, which lose efficiency and cost a lot of money to install, if we had smaller community-based systems we would be able to provide electricity at a better cost.
Right now it’s the owners of the transmission lines that decide who can and can’t hook up. We need to work with the transmission line owners and with our citizens to make sure that it’s easy for people. This is not just about environmentalism; it’s about entrepreneurialism.
3. Do you think title insurance reform is necessary in the state?
Yes, I do. There was a good bill in the last legislative session that all five PRC commissioners endorsed. It would do three things: It would deregulate title insurance so that there’s competition between companies; it would allow the big lenders to pool their resources to buy title insurance for homeowners, so that would also bring the cost down; and it would repeal a law that was passed in 1999 that gave title insurance companies immunity from prosecution if it turned out they were negligent in their insurance.
4. Have you ever been arrested or convicted of DUI or any other criminal charge?
I was arrested in 1999 for simple battery, and I went through court-ordered programs including anger management and grief counseling. I’ve mostly tried to put that behind me.