Brandon Presley wins another one for the consumer

As we reported last week, Entergy was found to have violated their agreement with federal regulators by selling its cheapest energy to other corporations instead of to ratepayers.  Of course, Entergy is now appealing their loss, hoping to find a judge that will tell them it's OK to use their monopoly to stick it to us, the common folks.  And of course, Entergy wants to us to foot the bill for the appeal, too.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission (PSC) had another idea, though.  Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley put a motion for a new rule before the three-member PSC that would prohibit Entergy from passing along their legal bills to the consumer when Entergy's been found in violation of the law.  The motion carried two votes to one.  Here's what Commissioner Presley had to say about it:

“This is real simple: consumers should not have to foot the bill to sue themselves. Nothing is fair about asking the people, who are owed money, to pay for the other side in a court case. That would be like asking the people who win a case in court to pay for the losing side’s legal fees.” Presley said. “No utility customer should have to be paying to fight against their own wallet.”

The Mississippi Business Journal's Business Blog has a post up on this, and they tell us who voted against the rule:  Southern District Commissioner Leonard Bentz.  With the Governor vetoing wind pool money, isn't life already expensive enough on the Coast, Commissioner Bentz?