The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Thursday voted to begin a process of seeking comment to ensure utility consumers see reduced rates because of the GOP tax reform bill.
The order is intended to help FERC build a record on whether it needs to take further action.
FERC has received a flood of petitions, from consumer energy advocates to state energy commissions and governors’ energy offices, to force utilities and pipeline owners to cut rates in line with Trump’s reduction in the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent.
“This is historic stuff,” said Republican FERC Chairman Kevin McIntyre. “Here we are not even to Tax Day with orders that address how to best address [tax reform] and how to best flow to consumers the benefits of the reduction in the corporate tax rate. These orders we address today will ensure customers pay just and reasonable rates.”
Some utilities and state public utility commissions have taken steps to ensure power consumers do not overpay for electric and gas service as a result of savings companies will see from the $1.5 trillion tax reform bill that President Trump signed into law Dec. 22.
But a number of state agencies and attorneys general have called for FERC to do more.
A coalition of state attorneys general and consumer advocate offices wrote in a Jan. 9 letter to FERC that the commission should “take action at the federal level to ensure that all charges on customers’ bills are just and reasonable.”
The pipeline industry, meanwhile, has cautioned FERC against requiring rate reductions.
The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, representing natural gas pipeline companies regulated by FERC, has pushed the commission to reject the petitions as an unfair “one-size fits all” policy.
On the electricity side, most of the FERC-regulated electric transmission companies have rates that automatically adjust with changes to tax rates, so reductions for much of the industry are already happening.
One of the orders FERC issued Thursday directs 48 companies that have not made changes to propose revisions to their transmission rates or show why they should not do so.
The commission also proposed a rule that would allow FERC to determine whether certain natural gas pipeline owners may be collecting unjust and unreasonable rates in light of the corporate tax reduction.
Under the rule, pipeline owners could reduce its rates by the percentage reduction in its cost of delivering service, as a result of the tax cut. Pipeline owners who decline to change their rates would have to explain why.
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Cutting every ones utility bills by 75% would be so great for consumers