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The Regulatory Commission of Alaska got an earful from a few Juneau electric customers Thursday night.

It was an unusual meeting, held at the request of Rep. Wes Keller, R-Wasilla, chairman of the House Administrative Regulation Review committee.

Many customers objected to the higher rates Alaska Electric Light & Power Co. implemented - with the approval of the RCA - to pass on the cost of diesel after two avalanches, the first in April 2008 and again in January.

But the RCA's approval process for temporary, emergency rate increases isn't a public one, and so the commission held no hearings or meetings.

This time, the RCA said it received a number of complaints after the second avalanche hit Juneau, doubling utility rates during the three-week energy crisis.

While the Centennial Hall ballroom was prepared for about 160, about 30 people came, with at least one-third either from the Legislature, the utility or the regulatory commission.

Most of the input was negative.

Juneau resident Dennis Harris, in written comments, said he was "dismayed" that the meeting was being held after the cost-of-power adjustment was granted, not before. He called the higher rates "usurious," and the second avalanche an avoidable mistake.

"The RCA shouldn't encourage the current management by allowing it to pass the costs of its mistakes to customers," he wrote.

Bill Burk, a critic of the utility who last year helped organize the Juneau People's Power Project, echoed Harris. He also criticized the RCA for not protecting the public: "Why does it appear that it always rules in favor of the utilities?"

Cheryl Moralez said she believed the utility is untrustworthy for many reasons, calling AEL&P a "legally permissible monopoly." She gave a list of solutions, including net metering, increased transparency, and possibly making the utility public.

Gayle Horetski said that consumers weren't treated fairly. After this January's avalanche, she conserved for the first three weeks to keep the cost down for everybody, and then for the next four weeks because that's when she was being billed double the usual rate. For her, a conscientious consumer with a later billing cycle, that meant seven weeks, while others might only need to conserve for four.

By press time, partway through the meeting, one person had testified in support of the utility: Mike Notar, a union leader who has negotiated AEL&P's labor contracts for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers every few years. He praised their "fair and conservative approach" to bargaining and their civic involvement.

"I'm proud to have a personal and professional relationship with AEL&P," he said.

• Contact Kate Golden at 523-2276 or kate.golden@juneauempire.com.