Authority of the Public Service Commission regarding fuel costs of certain electric public utilities and granting rule-making authority

What it does

Summary by the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Legislature's nonpartisan drafting office. It's their wording, not ours.

Current law allows the Public Service Commission (PSC) to grant a rate increase to an electric public utility for increases in fuel costs that are of an extraordinary or emergency nature. The PSC may grant the increase after a hearing limited in scope to the question of the increase in fuel costs. For purposes of the foregoing, current law excludes the following from the definition of "electric public utility": 1) a public utility wholly owned and operated by a municipality or cooperative association; 2) a public utility that purchases, under federal or state approved wholesale rates, more than 50 percent of its electric power requirements from entities that are not affiliated interests of the public utility; and 3) a public utility with annual total gross operating revenues of $2.5 million or more whose electric generation equipment has a total capacity of less than 30 megawatts.

This bill eliminates the PSC's authority described above and allows the PSC, after a hearing, to approve a fuel cost plan for an electric public utility, or, if an electric public utility's actual fuel costs are outside of the utility's fuel cost annual tolerance, as established by the PSC, to commence a proceeding to adjust rates that is outside of a general rate case proceeding for the electric public utility. "Electric utility" is defined to have the same exclusions as under current law. Also, if the PSC approves a fuel cost plan for an electric public utility, the bill requires the PSC to defer for subsequent rate recovery or refund any under-collection or over-collection of fuel costs that are outside of the utility's symmetrical fuel cost tolerance, as established by the PSC. Finally, the bill requires the PSC to promulgate a rule to implement the bill's requirements.

Who's behind it

32 lawmakers are its authors⁠. 16 are Democrats and 15 are Republicans. 1 has no party on record.

10 more lawmakers signed on in support⁠.