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?

Presley says Entergy customers should quickly receive millions in refunds per judge's order

Commission Chairman Brandon Presley announced that a recent decision by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) judge should quickly translate into millions of dollars in refunds to customers of corporate utility Entergy Mississippi.

Presiding Administrative Law Judge Jon P. Dring of FERC on December 9th found that Entergy had violated its System Agreement and had sold lowest cost power to third parties for corporate profits rather than to its ratepayers, as required. Judge Dring's order says that the shareholders of Entergy should be required to refund the amount of overcharges plus interest for the transactions in question from 2000 to 2009.

“Having this order in hand, Entergy should immediately take steps to make these refunds and not put shareholders interest above the public interest by trying to delay this process.” Presley said. Presley says those refunds should be sent directly from Entergy Mississippi to their customers by check. “Entergy
Mississippi needs to be prepared to write checks back to their customers who have been overcharged. This should not show up as a credit, there should be a check in the mail.”

Presley said that obvious reforms are needed to protect against future corporate violations and that he plans to work to get those protections in place quickly.