Opinion ID: 370390
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Partial Rejection of Proposed Rates

Text: 75 HL&P contends that the Commission had no authority to permit the carriers to establish the capital incentive rate schedule when it had found portions of that schedule the $16.54 flat rate and the escalation provision that accompanied the $15.60 rate unlawful. In HL&P's view, any proposed capital incentive rate schedule must stand or fall as a whole; while minor technical deficiencies may be corrected, any legal defect in the schedule requires that it be rejected in its entirety. 76 HL&P relies on language formerly in the Act, but dropped by the codification that was intended to work no substantive change. 57 We do not believe § 10729 to be so lacking in flexibility as to prohibit the Commission from determining the lawfulness of a rate in a capital incentive rate proceeding, when that rate is encompassed within the initial filing, when the record contains evidence supporting that determination, and when the Commission has given full consideration to the lawfulness of the rate. To hold otherwise would be to mandate pointless, inefficient repetition of the capital incentive proceedings and to impair the congressional purpose of expedition. The language of § 10729, which does not support this technical objection, fairly reflects the legislative purpose. See Carolina, Clinchfield & Ohio Ry. v. ICC, 193 U.S.App.D.C. 151, 593 F.2d 1305 (1979).