NASHVILLE – Gov. Bill Haslam is calling for a review of the Tennessee Regulatory Authority and is raising the possibility of abolishing the agency, which sets rates and service standards for most for-profit utilities.
“Should there be a TRA, given the change in regulatory function?” Haslam asked in an interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “If so, what size should it be?”
He suggested that functions of the agency, an independent entity with directors appointed by the General Assembly and governor, might better be folded into the executive branch.
The TRA, which wields both judicial and executive powers, oversees rates for some investor-owned telephone utilities as well as for investor-owned water, natural gas and electric utilities. Regulated companies include Tennessee American Water Co. and Chattanooga Gas Co.
In 2009, state legislators approved market regulation for telecommunications, doing away with a price cap on phone and other services and removing them from the TRA’s jurisdiction.