What does the Louisiana Public Service Commission actually do?

The Louisiana Public Service Commission is established in the state constitution (Article IV, Section 21). It has five commissioners, each elected by Louisiana voters from a single-member district, for overlapping six-year terms. It is headquartered in Baton Rouge at the Galvez Building, 602 N. Fifth Street. Its successor agency dates back to 1898 and the current PSC was created by the 1921 constitution; today's structure comes from the 1974 constitution, which expanded the commission from three to five members.

In plain English, regulating a utility means: the commission decides what rates the utility can charge, approves the infrastructure it can build (and bill ratepayers for), hears complaints when service fails, and approves any merger or acquisition. The decisions are made on the record, in monthly public meetings, and you can read every filing if you know where to look.

The commission meets once a month, almost always on the second or third Wednesday, in what is called a Business and Executive (B&E) Session. Most sessions happen at the Galvez Building in Baton Rouge, but the commission also rotates meetings to other parts of the state. The agenda is posted in advance, the meetings are open to the public, and transcripts are published afterward.

A utility that wants a rate change files an application. Staff and the parties to the case go through months of testimony, data requests, and hearings before an Administrative Law Judge. The full commission then votes on the case at a B&E session. The constitution requires a decision within twelve months of filing.

Most rate changes from the big investor-owned utilities now happen through a Formula Rate Plan, often called an FRP. An FRP runs for three years. Inside that window, the utility's rates can be adjusted up or down each year within a narrow bandwidth without opening a full rate case. A full rate case opens the utility's books on the record and gives outside intervenors a real opportunity to dig in. FRPs are convenient for the utilities; full rate cases are where ratepayer protections actually get tested.

There are real ways for a Louisiana resident to push back, raise an issue, or be heard. Most people never use them, and that is a big part of why utilities tend to get what they ask for.

• File an informal complaint. Send your name, address, parish, contact information, the name of the utility company, and a brief statement of facts to the commissioner for your district or to the commission's consumer-affairs line at 225-342-4999 or 800-256-2397. Details: lpsc.louisiana.gov/Complaints.
• Formally intervene in a docket. When the commission opens a rate case or other proceeding, it publishes the docket in the monthly Official Bulletin. Any person who wants to be heard as a party can file a notice of protest or intervention with the Secretary's office within 25 days. Service-quality complaints have a shorter 15-day window. Intervention is the strongest way a ratepayer voice enters the record.
• Write to your commissioner directly. Each commissioner publishes contact information and complaint-staff contacts on the LPSC's district pages. The current roster lives at lpsc.louisiana.gov/Commissioners.
• File a public-records request. The LPSC publishes a standard request form (PDF). You can ask for any filing in any docket.

One thing worth knowing: under Louisiana's Open Meetings Law (R.S. 42:14), a public body has to allow a public comment period before it votes on an agenda item. In practice that means a member of the public can ask to speak at a B&E session before the Commission votes on a matter, subject to reasonable rules the Commission may set. Intervenors and parties to a specific docket are also recognized to speak during their case. For a non-party voter who wants to weigh in on a pending vote, showing up to speak before the vote, or putting comments in writing into the docket, is the most direct path, alongside the informal-complaint and formal-intervention routes above.

The LPSC has jurisdiction over investor-owned (privately-held, for-profit) utilities that provide service to the public in Louisiana. There are five categories, listed below in order of how often they show up on voters' bills.

Two investor-owned gas distributors cover most of Louisiana's regulated gas footprint. The picture changed significantly in 2025, when a New Orleans-based company called Delta Utilities acquired both CenterPoint Energy's two Louisiana gas operations and Entergy Louisiana's natural gas distribution business.

This is the category most people are surprised by. The LPSC regulates investor-owned water and sewer companies, not the parish or city water department. In District 1, several of these private water utilities operate. The most active is Magnolia Water, a subsidiary of Central States Water Resources (CSWR).

The LPSC's telecom authority is mostly residual. AT&T Louisiana (formerly BellSouth) is the largest incumbent local exchange carrier still under LPSC jurisdiction. Most telecom pricing, and all wireless and broadband service, has been moved out of state jurisdiction by federal law and state deregulation.

The LPSC's Transportation Division also licenses intrastate household goods movers and wreckers / towing services. Not a daily-ratepayer issue, but worth mentioning because the authority is real.

A lot of utility complaints land at the wrong agency. Here is what the LPSC does not handle, and where to send those questions instead.