To Stop Bad Behavior, RESA President Encourages Regulators To Ban, From The Market, Retail Suppliers Who Violate Rules

During a panel at DNV GL's Energy Executive Forum, Matt White, General Counsel at IGS Energy and President of the Retail Energy Supply Association, said that regulators have not enforced retail energy rules vigorously enough, and that banning one or two suppliers for violations would shut any abusive behavior down quickly.

"They're not enforcing the rules, they're just creating rules," White said

"Going out and taking a couple suppliers who are abusing the market, and saying, 'sorry guys' -- and not a $50,000 fine, not a $100,000 fine -- say, 'you're out of this market, you're out' -- it takes one or two times to do that to a retail suppler in the market, that stuff gets shut down. And that's way more effective ... I would really encourage any regulator out there to take a look at your docket and say, 'where can we really come down on a supplier and send a message to the market that we have to be doing things the right way,'" White said

White said that such rule enforcement in other industries has led to such other industries' growth.

"I would hope that, that starts to happen in our industry as well," White said

White also encouraged retail suppliers to "call out" any bad behavior from competitors or agents

"Don't just sweep it under the rug," White said

White said that there may be fears that calling out bad behavior will bring negative attention to the industry, but he said that it's worse for the industry for such actions to first become known through media coverage, rather than suppliers' proactive stance against such behavior

White noted that, as exclusively reported by EnergyChoiceMatters.com, IGS has filed complaints against multiple retail suppliers for alleged behavior, and said that IGS is also suing a vendor for alleged behavior that would disparage IGS's name

White said that IGS also passes information on behavior it has witnessed to regulators outside of formal complaints, and also takes it up directly with the counsel for the responsible party