Three candidates are running for one open seat to serve as one of Louisiana’s top utility regulators.
The five-member Louisiana Public Service Commission is charged with ensuring public utilities across the state provide safe, reliable and “reasonably priced” service. The powerful agency is one of the least known across the state.
Nick Laborde, Jean-Paul Coussan, and Julie Quinn are competing to represent District 2, which touches 13 parishes including parts of East and West Baton Rouge parishes. Commissioner Craig Greene, a moderate Republican, decided not to run for re-election after eight years in office.
Greene’s seat has been influential, sometimes serving as the deciding vote, as he fell in the center between the two other Republicans on the commission and the two Democrats.
Who are the candidates?
Nick Laborde is a Democrat from Avoyelles Parish. He lives in Baton Rouge and has built a career in human resources. He went viral in a TikTok video after Hurricane Ida when he taught viewers how to contest their energy bills in Louisiana and contact their utility regulators, including the Public Service Commission. He is the youngest candidate in the race and a newcomer to politics.
Jean-Paul Coussan is currently a Republican state senator, representing part of Lafayette. He was just elected to the State Senate last year after serving in the Louisiana House of Representatives since 2015. The 2024 session was his first in the Senate. While in the House, Coussan chaired the Natural Resources and Environment committee, championing policies that protect the state’s oil and gas industry.
Julie Quinn is a business and government attorney based in Metairie. She’s had the longest career in public office, beginning with a term on the Jefferson Parish School Board in 2001. The Republican also served as a state senator for seven years before taking a break to raise her children. Quinn founded her own law firm, Quinn Law in 2009.
Where do they stand?
Republicans Coussan and Quinn are both running on conservative platforms. Both have railed against the Biden administration’s creation of tax credits to help incentivize wind and solar development, arguing renewables should be developed without the help of taxpayer dollars. Quinn-Summerville also opposes the federal timeline set for utilities to diversify their energy mix, calling it “unattainable” during the Press Club of Baton Rouge’s candidate forum.
Coussan believes the increase in renewables is “driving out oil and gas jobs” and increasing energy prices. If elected, he said he wants the state’s utilities to take advantage of Louisiana’s natural gas supply and continue to produce much of the state’s energy by burning gas. In a Forum held by the Alliance for Affordable Energy, he said renewables could be used to hedge prices when the cost of natural gas fluctuates like it did in 2022.
Quinn, while supportive of using natural gas, has said she wants to explore the use of micro-nuclear facilities to lower rates. She also would like to see Louisiana utilities lower rates by selling more energy produced by gas to other parts of the country.
Laborde said he wants to see the state expand the use of renewable energy, in part to encourage more regional transmission lines connecting Louisiana to the upper Midwest.
There’s currently a bottleneck that prevents the state from receiving cheaper renewable energy produced in the north from being sold in the south. For the regional electric grid operator to build more transmission lines, the agency is requiring Entergy and other Louisiana utilities to show their commitment to a diverse energy mix.
“They’ll invest when they see us investing in the future,” Laborde said in the Alliance for Affordable Energy forum.
The Democrat also said he’s interested in reinstating “net-metering” statewide, a policy that allows residents with rooftop solar to receive more credit on their bills and be paid more by utilities for any excess power they produce. Residents can then recoup the cost of their panels faster.
All three candidates said they’re committed to holding utilities accountable and maintaining transparency with ratepayers. If elected, Laborde said he supports passing performance-based regulations that give utilities a stronger financial incentive to maintain the grid, conserve energy and develop renewables. He also calls for utilities to publicly submit action plans for creating a grid resilient to disasters.
Quinn said she wants to “rein in unnecessary utility company spending” to help lower rates as well. Coussan said he plans to hold companies accountable for getting power up after storms as quickly as possible.
Who’s paying for their campaign?
Historically, most Public Service Commission candidates have accepted campaign donations from the utilities and companies they will regulate if elected.
Laborde is the only candidate who has pledged not to accept money from utility companies. He’s raised a little over $13,000 to date.
Coussan’s campaign has raised the most money, more than $500,000, including donations from the oil and gas industry as well as utilities. He said that despite accepting the money, his message is his own.
The bulk of Quinn’s contributions have come from regular residents but she began accepting donations from utilities in September to raise more money. She’s spoken out against taking money from lobbyists but felt she needed more money to win the race.
Who’s endorsing who?
As the sole Democrat, Laborde was endorsed by the Louisiana Democratic Party. He was also endorsed by Commissioner Davante Lewis, the SPLC Action Fund, the Forum for Equality PAC, Voters Organized to Educate and the Sierra Club Delta Chapter.
Quinn and Coussan, on the other hand, have split the Republican Party.
The Republican Party committees from Ascension, East Baton Rouge, Iberville, Lafourche and Livingston parishes have endorsed Quinn-Summerville, while the committees in Terrebonne and Pointe Coupee parishes endorse Coussan. Lafayette’s committee chose not to endorse either candidate.
Quinn was also endorsed by former state GOP chairs Roger Villere and Louis Gurvich as well as major Republican donor Boysie Bollinger. Coussan was endorsed by the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association’s political action committee, the State Senate president, the Louisiana Manufacturers Political Action Committee, the Home Builders Political Action Committee and the majority of Republican State Central Committee members from the district.
