American Public Power Association president highlights top issues for 2017
Sue Kelly, president and CEO of the American Public Power Association (APPA), recently highlighted the main issues of concern for the organization, speaking at the U.S. Energy Association’s 13th Annual State of the Energy Industry forum in Washington, D.C.
The issues Kelly identified included continuing the availability of tax-exempt financing for public power utilities as well as preserving and growing the industry-government partnership on cyber and physical grid security.
Tax-exempt is important to the APPA, Kelly said, because it is the main source of funding for public power utilities.
“Any time you get tax reform there’s a certain number of what we call ‘pay fors’ that are on the table,” Kelly said. “The charitable deduction is one of them. Mortgage interest deduction is another one and deductibility of interest from state and local bonds is always another one.”
Kelly also highlighted the importance of maintaining partnership with the government through the administration change.
“We’ve done a lot of things to improve information sharing,” Kelly said. “We’ve done a lot of drills. And one of the things that I really hope and will try to work to see is that the change in administration does not mean that that falls down in any respect. That we’re able to maintain that and to continue to strengthen that partnership.”
Kelly also said that dealing with increasing federal regulations is an important issue and called for increased decision-making opportunities at the state and local levels.
