League of Women Voters to host BPU Chair Robert Gibson April 16

Robert Gibson, chair of the Los Alamos County Board of Public Utilities, will appear at the League of Women Voters of Los Alamos Lunch with a Leader on Thursday, April 16 to answer resident questions about utility rates, reliability and capital projects. The event is scheduled to start at noon at the Fellowship Hall of the Unitarian Church on Sage Loop, with some local listings showing an 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. time window for the program and audience Q&A.

Gibson’s role matters in practical terms: under Article V of the Los Alamos County Charter the Department of Public Utilities operates county-owned electric, gas, water and sewer systems under the jurisdiction and control of the five-member Board of Public Utilities, whose members are appointed by the County Council. Gibson, a former County Council member and long-time public servant who previously served on the BPU, has spoken to the League before, most recently in June 2025 on the county’s pathway to carbon-free energy.

Residents attending should expect discussion of a near-term billing change that could alter household electric bills. County documents note that the Time-of-Use and Residential Demand rate structure, adopted by County Council via Ordinance CO-02-365 on June 10, 2025, will begin no sooner than July 2026 after new billing software is implemented. Local reporting and county rate pages show ongoing updates to residential wholesale credits and natural-gas commodity components, a technical backdrop for questions about how pass-through costs and credits will appear on bills.

The broader policy frame attendees can expect includes Los Alamos County’s Climate Action Plan and a council-adopted carbon neutrality by 2050 target, along with a county goal to be a net carbon-neutral electric provider by 2040 and to phase out natural gas in the community by 2070. Those long-range goals intersect with hydraulics of electrification, wildfire-hardening investments and anticipated load growth tied to laboratory and county development, all of which carry capital costs that are ultimately reflected in rates and bond or reserve spending.

There is a possible scheduling discrepancy in League postings for April 16: one listing shows Marcela Diaz of Somos Un Pueblo Unido as a Lunch with a Leader participant in the same time window. Attendees should confirm the program sequence or any multi-segment format with the League of Women Voters of Los Alamos before arriving.

Practical questions residents may want to bring to Gibson include: how the county will phase in the new TOU and residential demand charges and what customers can expect on a first bill; which capital projects for wildfire hardening, grid upgrades or water and sewer improvements are slated next and how they will be financed; how the BPU is coordinating with Los Alamos County, state and federal funding sources to limit rate pressure; and how projected LANL and county load growth is being incorporated into resource and reliability planning. The League’s session traditionally offers a recorded version or follow-up materials through the League and PAC-8 for residents who cannot attend in person.