In a turn of events, Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, seemingly speaking for the Commission as a whole, and Attorney General Jim Hood attempted today to counter the impact of an audit requested and paid for by the PSC.
Both pols were long on rhetoric, but short on specifics.
From Presley’s release
“With respect to the touting of these findings, I think Entergy needs to put down the pom-poms and pick up some reading glasses,” Presley said.
From Hood’s release
“Entergy is at it again, issuing press releases that are not true. The report itself states that Vantage Consulting did not review any procurement decisions and did not make any judgment as to the prudence of any purchase. In fact, the audit recommended additional audits because they found Entergy’s accounting was “likely to be innaccurate”. The PSC will likely be issuing documents tomorrow which will totally expose Entergy’s mis-representations. We will have a true court ordered audit one day. We will find exactly the same thing as the audit in Louisiana; that Entergy overcharged customers.” Attorney General Jim Hood, State of Mississippi.
I have blogged on the cycle of events. One note is that the PSC sat on the taxpayer funded audit for two months (it was dated November 10, 2008) while launching the PR offensive. That would seem to indicate that the Drabinski audit didn’t help further their PR or political ends. However, the most important thing is to read the Drabinski audit yourself and judge about whether this industry expert condemned Entergy or not.
