Retail Energy Regulator Urges Suppliers To Speak Out Against Bad Actors In Market, If Markets Are To Be Sustained, Grown

Speaking during a town hall at DNV GL's Energy Executive Forum, Illinois Commerce Commissioner Sadzi Oliva encouraged retail energy suppliers to speak out against bad actors in the market if they hope to sustain and grow retail energy markets

"It takes one bad story to set everything back," Oliva noted

To combat such negative impacts from bad actors, Oliva encouraged suppliers to, "talk against it," and to tell policymakers that, "that's not what we do, that's not us."

"There are reactions to these stories" of bad actors, and regulators have to deal with it, Oliva noted

Oliva's comments echoed those made by Anthony Foxx, Chief Policy Officer at Lyft and former United States Secretary of Transportation, during a keynote

Foxx drew a comparison to earlier times in the airline industry as competing carriers realized that crashes negatively impacted customers' perception of the industry as a whole, not just those airlines involved in accidents. That led to a self-reporting regime of accidents and near-accidents, as competing firms realized that the health of the industry was dependent on public perception, Foxx noted.