Evening star., 1933-02-06
ELECTRIC RATES
WILL Be REDUCED
HEREFEBRUARY2 @
Cut of s562, 900 Per Year
Agreed Upon at Confer
ence of Attorneys.
COMPANY WILL DROP
ITS PENDING APPEAL
Utilities Commission Agrees to
Modify Rates Allowed in JUS
tice Luhring's Decision.

Electric light and power rates ir
/ Washington will be reduced February
20. The reductions are designed to save
consumers S562, 900 in electric bills pei
annum.
This result was reached today, when
| the Public Utilities Commission and
the Potomac Electric Power Co. COM
posed the differences which previously
had led to litigation between the two
The litigation was designed to test
the power of the commission, without
consent of the company, to set aside a
decree of the District Supreme Court
under which electric rates previously
had been governed and to substitute q
new method of its own.
Company Drops Appeal.
This question was settled in favor OF
the commission by Justice Oscar Luh-
ring last July, and the company ap-
pealed.
In the agreement today the company
relinquishes its appeal and admits the
power of the commission to deal with
rates, whether or not court decree
exists.
In exchange for this the commits
sion modifles the scale allowed in JUS
tice Luhring'S opinion.
Had the rates been fixed for the next
year, under the old consent decree
method the reduction possible would
have been 1882, 900. Under the method
approved by Justice Luhring the re-
duction would have been S647000 So
that the cut of S5620OO agreed by
compromise today comes somewhere
between the two methods.
Ask Court Ruling.
Lawyers for both parties were put
ting the final touches on papers to be
filed in the Court of Appeals this aft
ernoon, which will inform the court
the parties now are in accord and ask
it to send the case back to the District
Supreme Court, where it will be settled
by agreement. The company is en-
titled to 10 days notice of any change
IN rates schedules. but waived its rights
to notice. The 10 days between today
and the day Of the public hearing are
those required by law in favor of the
public.
At the public hearing. it will be de-
cided what distribution is to be made
Of the 1852 900 cut among the various
residential, commercial and industrial
schedules.
The sliding scale set up by agreement
today allows the company to earn 7
per cent on an agreed valuat ton Where
the return in any one year is more
than per cent and not more than 8H
per cent, so per cent of the excess
shall be used for rate reductions in the
following year; where the return
earned is between 8k4 and per cent,
go per cent of the excess over 814 per
cent shall be used for the reduction of
rates; and, finally, if the amount
earned is in excess of per cent, a
further additional amount of rs per
cent of the excess above 9 per cent
shall be used for reduction in rates.
Seven Per Cent Assured.
The decree also provides that if the
rate for any two consecutive years falls
below 634 per cent, or If 1t falls below
612 per cent for any one 12-month
period, the company shall be entitled
to a prompt increase in rates, so as
to assure it return of per cent.
Present at the conference at which
the agreement was finally reached were
members of the commission, Peoples
Counsel Richmond B. Keech, Assistant
Corporation Counsel William A. Roberts
and President William F. Ham, Vice
President S. Russell Bowen and Con-
troller A. G. Neal of the power COM
pany.