Opinion ID: 1343653
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Aircraft Expenses

Text: Colorado Ute operated two King Air aircraft with seating capacity of eight passengers each. The aircraft were used to facilitate employee travel between widely separated cities and towns within the utility's service area. However, Colorado Ute permitted non-employees to use the aircraft on a space available basis. The commission, relying on an analysis performed by one of its staff members, concluded that Colorado Ute utilized each aircraft at approximately one-half capacity. It therefore deducted certain capital and operating expenses attributable to one of the aircraft from Colorado Ute's rate base and test year operating expenses. The district court found that the record contained competent evidence of non-consumer benefits in the use of the airplanes and affirmed the commission's decision. Colorado Ute argues that these deductions lacked competent evidentiary support. Its principal contentions are first, that the exhibits and testimony adduced to prove under-utilization were so riddled with factual and mathematical errors that they were incompetent to substantiate the commission's conclusion, and second, that the commission arbitrarily departed from its own earlier determination that operation of the two aircraft in question resulted in cost savings and in the efficient use of manpower resources. While it cannot be denied that some of the aircraft utilization calculations submitted to the commission were in error, neither can it be doubted that the commission received evidence, based on data supplied by Colorado Ute itself, which tended to show under-utilization of aircraft seating capacity by Colorado Ute employees, non-employee travel on the airplane on a space available basis and scheduling inefficiencies. This is certainly competent evidence from which the commission could have inferred that capital and operating expenses attributable to one of the two King Airs did not benefit Colorado Ute customers and therefore should be stricken from Colorado Ute's rate base and test year operating expenses. Although Colorado Ute disputes this evidence and claims that other means of transportation will not prove to be as cost effective as its aircraft, it is well established that where there is competent evidence to support the findings of the Commission, a reviewing court may not substitute its judgment for that of the Commission. Sangre De Cristo Electric Association, Inc. v. Public Utilities Commission, supra . Colorado Ute's second contention that the commission arbitrarily overruled its earlier decisionis without merit. Because of the legislative character of rate-making, the commission is not bound by its prior decisions or by any doctrine similar to stare decisis. B & M Service, Inc. v. Public Utilities Commission, 163 Colo. 228, 232-233, 429 P.2d 293, 295 (1967). Moreover, while consistency in administrative rulings is considered essential, and while agency rulings are entitled to great weight in subsequent proceedings, id., the appearance of arbitrariness is dispelled when new findings are made, as they were here, on the basis of new evidence and a new record.