Problem Solvers

Mark Goss has a lot to worry about.

As chair of the Kentucky Public Service Commission, he leads an agency charged with keeping electric rates low, while keeping utilities financially stable.

That�s hard these days.

To keep up with all the electricity people are using, utilities across the United States will need to build a lot of very expensive power plants in the next 20 years. Building and running those plants could get even more costly as people concerned about global warming push for ways to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.

That adds up to tough times ahead for a state with some of the lowest electric rates in the nation. The reason for those enviable rates is that 90 percent of Kentucky�s electricity comes from coal�a local, relatively inexpensive fuel that releases the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide when it�s burned.

So what�s a public service commissioner to do?

We asked him.

In this month�s The Future of Electricity column, Goss talks about those tough issues. He sees the cost of electricity rising in the next two decades. But he�s doing something about it. From meeting with power producers in Kentucky to fellow public service commissioners around the country, he�s working to keep costs under control as much as possible.

Goss even has suggestions about how you can help resolve these energy dilemmas. Hint: it has to do with using energy efficiently.

So make sure you�re using energy as efficiently as possible. You can be a problem solver too.