Chris Justin

Chris Justin graduated from Southern Lehigh High School. Justin earned a bachelor's degree from Pennsylvania State University in 2009. Justin's career experience includes working as an engineering consultant.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Chris Justin is a licensed Professional Engineer running as an Independent for Louisiana Public Service Commission District 1. Before running, Chris consulted for the Louisiana Public Service Commission, where he saw firsthand how bad policy choices by captured regulators were driving up utility bills while the grid became less reliable. As an engineer, the waste and inefficiency drove him crazy. He decided to run because someone has to actually read the 800-page filings utilities use to bury bad ideas. Chris has pledged to take zero utility money. He lives in New Orleans with his wife and three children.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Fix our grid first. Utilities charge ratepayers every month for grid maintenance, but the Commission doesn't require them to actually spend the money. Whatever they don't spend becomes profit. There is no audit and no refund. The grid then fails in storms and ratepayers pay again. I will require utilities to commit to fixing what we already paid for before approving new rate increases.End the monopoly tax. The core problem is the monopoly business model itself. Utilities earn a guaranteed profit on everything they build, so their incentive is to build as much as possible, as expensively as possible. I will fight to lower the guaranteed return, reopen the Customer Centered Options docket so private industry can add competition, and eliminate junk charges on bills like the LCFC, which costs ratepayers roughly $12.8 million a year for nothing.End utility corruption. Utility companies fund the campaigns of the commissioners who regulate them. That is a structural conflict of interest, and it has to end. I am the only viable candidate who has pledged to take zero utility money, and I will push for rules prohibiting utility campaign contributions to commissioners.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Utility regulation and grid reliability. Louisiana ratepayers are paying roughly 45% more for electricity than they did in 2018, and the grid still fails when storms hit. The Public Service Commission has the authority to fix this, and that work is what I am passionate about: making utilities prove they spent the maintenance money ratepayers already paid for, lowering the guaranteed return that drives overbuilding, opening the grid to private competition, and ending the structural conflict of interest where utilities fund the campaigns of the commissioners who regulate them.