Opinion ID: 891654
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Whether the Emergency FPPCAC Violates Section 62-8-7(B)

Text: {76} ABCWUA claims that PNM improperly failed to file new schedules in violation of Section 62-8-7(B). Section 62-8-7(B) provides that, [u]nless the commission otherwise orders, no public utility shall make any change in any rate that has been duly established except after thirty days' notice to the commission, which notice shall plainly state the changes proposed to be made in the rates then in force and the time when the changed rates will go into effect and other information as the commission by rule requires. The utility shall also give notice of the proposed changes to other interested persons as the commission may direct. All proposed changes shall be shown by filing new schedules that shall be kept open to public inspection. The commission for good cause shown may allow changes in rates without requiring the thirty days' notice, under conditions that it may prescribe. (Emphasis added.) The purpose of the statute is to provide both the PRC and the public with advance notice of any proposed rate changes before those changes go into effect. {77} In the present case, PNM notified the PRC of the changes proposed in the Emergency FPPCAC on March 20, 2008, the date on which it filed its joint motion for an Emergency FPPCAC. The public was notified of these changes on March 29, 2008, the date on which public notice was published in the Albuquerque Journal. The Emergency FPPCAC, as modified by the PRC's Final Order, went into effect on June 2, 2008, approximately sixty days later. {78} With respect to the filing of new schedules, the record reflects that PNM filed new schedules in the underlying rate case in accordance with Section 62-8-7(B). However, the proceedings in the present case were severed from the underlying rate case. PNM did not file another set of new schedules until after the issuance of the Final Order granting its request for an Emergency FPPCAC. Specifically, the Final Order required PNM to file new schedules for the Emergency FPPCAC containing terms and conditions consistent with [the] Final Order[,]. . . no later than 5 days after the date this Final Order is issued. PNM timely filed new schedules on May 27, 2008, and the Emergency FPPCAC went into effect six days later, on June 2, 2008. {79} We conclude that PNM complied with the substantive requirements of Section 62-8-7(B). First, PNM gave the PRC and the public approximately sixty days notice of the rate changes proposed in the Emergency FPPCAC. Second, PNM filed new schedules in accordance with the Final Order before the Emergency FPPCAC went into effect. We therefore reject ABCWUA's claim that the Emergency FPPCAC violates Section 62-8-7(B).