Hood blames Entergy for legislative delayBY JOHN O'BRIEN
MONDAY, JULY 06, 2009 2:00:00 PM
JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) - Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood recently said the power provider he has been battling for months is "kind of like the mafia."
Hood made the remarks in a Thursday report by WLBT in Jackson regarding the state Public Service Commission putting many of its workers on furloughs to save money. Hood blamed lobbyists for Entergy Corp. for misinforming lawmakers on how many employees the PSC and the Public Utilities Staff should be kept, the report says.
Last week, the PSC and Public Utilities Staff were not told their budgets at the end of a special legislative session.
"It just shows you Entergy's kind of like the mafia -- 'if you try to regulate us we'll shut you down.' And that's what happened," Hood said in the report.
"They have shut down the actual functions of the PSC to a bare minimum and they've shut down the agency that assists them completely. From what I was told, senators and Gov. (Haley) Barbour were right in the middle of the shutdown. I guess he's carrying the water for Entergy."
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