Endorsed by His Former Republican Opponent
Wayne Cooper Ran for This Seat. Now He's Endorsing Chris Justin.
Wayne Cooper earned 10% of the vote in the May Republican primary for District 1 Public Service Commissioner. He did not make the runoff, but he did not go quiet. He sent every remaining candidate ten hard questions about your utility bill, and he published the answers.
Through reviewing his answers and visiting with Chris, Wayne realized that Chris Justin is by far the most qualified and best candidate for the job.
Wayne and Chris both believe strongly in:
- Eliminating corruption at the Public Service Commission
- Eliminating excessive profit margins for monopoly utility companies
- Enforcing penalties when companies like Magnolia Water provide terrible service
Who Answered
Here is how each candidate responded, in Wayne's telling.
Chris Justin
No Party
Answered all ten questions in full, in writing.
John Young
Republican
Called a few days later to ask for more time to put his answers together.
Stephanie Hilferty
Republican
Did not respond to the questions, or to his follow-up text.
In Wayne's Words
"I told them both the exact same thing: I'm putting our principles first."
"I do not want speeches, slogans, buzzwords, or polished political answers. I have heard enough of those already. The people paying the bills deserve direct answers."
"Chris Justin didn't just answer the questions the very next day. He actually took the time to drive out and sit down to visit with me in person. He respected the voters enough to answer thoroughly and in a timely manner."
Wayne Cooper, Republican candidate for LPSC District 1, in a public post, May 26, 2026
Hear It From Wayne
The 10 Questions, Answered
These are Wayne's ten questions, with Chris's answers exactly as Wayne published them. Tap any question to read the full answer.
"I have heard stories of people paying $140 a month for literally no water used. The penalties already exist. The Commission just isn't using them."
Chris Justin, answering Wayne's question on Magnolia Water
1.Will you support making campaign contributions from utility companies, their PACs, executives, and lobbyists to PSC candidates and commissioners illegal?
Chris Justin
Yes. I believe strongly that accepting campaign contributions from the companies you regulate is wrong and creates a conflict of interest. I have personally pledged to not take any money from utilities or their surrogates, and I would fight to change the rules to make it illegal for all Commissioners.
2.Will you make a motion before the PSC to withdraw the Formula Rate Plan and Resilience Recovery charges currently impacting Louisiana families?
Chris Justin
I would vote against extending FRPs and resilience recovery filings. The current rate structure is broken. Utilities earn a guaranteed rate of return for everything they build, which incentivizes them to build as much as they can as expensively as possible. I would open a rulemaking to shift to Performance-Based Ratemaking, where a utility's earnings are tied to actually doing a good job maintaining our grid.
3.Will you support restoring net metering rates so Louisiana families with rooftop solar are fairly compensated for the energy they put back onto the grid?
Chris Justin
Yes. If individuals want to add capacity to our grid on their own dime, helping address our massive and growing energy needs, they should be compensated fairly for it. It is cheaper to pay your neighbor for their excess energy than to pay Entergy or Cleco to build a massive, expensive gas plant and then transport those electrons all the way to your neighbor. We can use Demand-Side Management programs to ensure net metering is more cost-effective than the alternatives. We need to put the right price signals in place, which of course the monopoly utilities are fighting tooth and nail.
4.Do you support carbon capture sequestration projects in Louisiana, and how do you justify the risks and costs to ratepayers and local communities?
Chris Justin
No. CCS is a money grab and a waste of resources. The PSC does have authority to impact and potentially stop CCS-related utility projects through approvals tied to generation, infrastructure, and cost recovery. The proposed Cleco sale is especially important because of Project Diamond Vault and the CCS development interests tied to it.
5.Utility companies are already guaranteed around a 10% profit margin. Will you move to stop profit margins from exceeding those levels and being pushed onto ratepayers?
Chris Justin
Yes. 15 to 20% of our monthly bills go to utilities as profit, which is $20 to $30 a month for the average Louisianan. That is too high for taking virtually no risk, so I would drive that return on equity closer to 7% and shift the debt-to-equity financing ratio from about 50/50 to 65/35 to better match market risk and drive down costs for us.
6.What penalties would you support against providers like Magnolia Water when they fail to provide proper service while raising rates after corporate buyouts?
Chris Justin
I would not have approved their new payment plan (FRP) given the longstanding, unresolved issues their customers have faced. I have heard stories of people paying $140 a month for literally no water used. It is completely unacceptable. The penalties already exist. The Commission just isn't using them.
Deny the FRP extension under U-37584. That forces Magnolia into a full rate case where they have to open their books on the record. Their original FRP under U-35822 was authorized for three years and required a new rate case at the end of that term. Those were the terms they agreed to, and the Commission let them skip it twice. Disallow more costs from rate base: Staff disallowed $2.4 million over the last three years, and a more aggressive review of the $422 million Magnolia claims to have invested would likely find significantly more. Open a show-cause proceeding on federal consent decree compliance: the parent company's owner personally co-signed that decree, and the Commission can require him to demonstrate compliance under oath, with civil penalties for noncompliance. Reject the next CSWR acquisition in Louisiana: CSWR keeps buying failing systems because the FRP mechanism guarantees their returns, and the Commission approves every one. These are the levers. The current Commission hasn't used them. I would.
7.If breaking up utility monopolies comes back before the PSC, will you fight to increase competition instead of protecting monopoly control?
Chris Justin
Yes. I support increased competition, and I think the LPSC's closure of the Customer-Centered Options (CCO) docket at the behest of Entergy was a huge mistake. The Louisiana Energy Users Group has 35,000 local employees at companies like Exxon and Shell. They proposed adding 3.5 gigawatts of power on their own dime, and the LPSC refused to even study the impact. I would re-open R-35462 and proceed with that, because, like net metering, if private industry wants to pay for its own generation and it saves all Louisianans money, we should let them.
8.Will you support reversing the PSC's recent "fast-track" approval process that speeds up utility approvals without enough scrutiny for the ratepayer?
Chris Justin
Yes. That was a terrible rule. Data centers should pay for 100% of their costs. The Lightning Initiative shifted 75% of the costs for expedited, and therefore more expensive, equipment onto us for no reason whatsoever.
9.When the Cleco buyout comes before the PSC after January, will you vote to approve it or oppose it?
Chris Justin
Without ironclad protections written into the order, oppose it. Vague oversight isn't enough. The biggest one is a CCS cost-recovery firewall. Project Diamond Vault is a big reason this deal is structured the way it is. Captive Cleco customers should not pay a dime for CCS development through rate base, riders, or surcharges. That has to be in the order, not in a press release. I also need a cap on post-sale debt-to-equity (infrastructure funds load companies with debt to fund dividends back to the parent) and limits on affiliate transactions and management fees, which is exactly the drain that destroyed customer service at CSWR and Magnolia. Without those, no.
10.Do you support lowering PSC term lengths from six years to four so commissioners are held accountable to voters more often?
Chris Justin
I don't have strong feelings on term length, though I completely agree there should be a mechanism for ensuring accountability to voters, and not to utility companies.
Why a Republican Is Backing the No Party Engineer
The Public Service Commission is not Congress. It does not fight about the culture. It votes on one thing: how much the power company gets to charge you, and how much guaranteed profit it earns doing it. On that question, the party label on the ballot tells you almost nothing.
Your electric bill is up about 50% since 2020. You cannot shop for another power company, so there is no competition keeping the price honest. The Commission is supposed to do that job, and it hasn't. Chris is a licensed engineer who consulted for this Commission and can read an 800-page utility filing line by line. When he found a charge that billed ratepayers about $12.8 million a year for energy nobody used, he fought to kill it.
He has pledged to take zero utility money, and he is the only viable candidate in this race who has. That is why a Republican who ran against him is now asking conservatives to back him. It isn't about party. It is about who actually does the work.
Back Chris Justin for PSC District 1
You came here because a Republican you trust vouched for Chris. See the plan he is going to fight for.
Wayne Cooper's questions, his account of each candidate's response, and Chris's full answers are from Wayne Cooper's public post of May 26, 2026. Wayne is a voluntary supporter and is not affiliated with or directed by the campaign.