As the 2013 Legislative session begins in Pierre, The Public Utilities Commission has plans to help protect South Dakota producers by revising grain buyer statutes. P-U-C Chairman Chris Nelson was sworn in Tuesday to serve the remaining four years of his term after being appointed and then elected by voters in the November. Nelson says grain buyer and grain warehouses are the focus of his goal for this legislative session.
“The biggest goal that we’ve got this year is revising some of the grain buyer and grain warehouse statutes that we’ve got. Obviously, that was an issue that we talked about quite a bit during the campaign over the past year, it’s an area that we’ve got to do some work. My biggest challenge this year is making sure we can get our bill to give the PUC the proper tools to find problems in grain warehouses and grain buyers sooner than we have in the past, so my number one priority is to get that bill through the legislature so we can better protect farmers and producers in South Dakota,” Nelson says.
Nelson says he has received input from South Dakotans and adds the P-U-C will deal with utilities that are asking for rate increases due to meeting federal requirements.
SDPB Radio Coverage of the South Dakota Legislature. See all coverage and find links to audio and video streams live from the Capitol at www.sdpb.org/statehouse