Opinion ID: 1410812
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Sale of the Blackwater Canyon Property is Subject to Scrutiny by the Public Service Commission

Text: The Public Service Commission exists to regulate public utilities, and oversee how services are provided and rates charged. As part of that oversight, our laws say that a public utility must get the Public Service Commission's approval every time it tries to assign, transfer, lease, sell, or otherwise dispose of its ... property or any part thereof.... W.Va.Code, 24-2-12 [1984]. The reason should be obvious: when a public utility buys or sells property, it normally makes or loses money. That affects the total assets of the public utility, and thus affects the rates that consumers pay for utility services. Every transaction that affects services to the public should be subjected to public scrutiny. It is a fundamental rule of law that [A] public service commission may look through the corporate form of affiliated corporations and probe for economic realities.... [W]hen an operating public utility which is subsidiary to a holding company is seeking a rate increase, all of the various ways in which the parent company receives profits from the subsidiary should be considered in establishing the rate of return that the owner of the subsidiary should receive. 64 Am.Jur.2d § 202, Public Utilities. By selling the Blackwater Canyon property, Allegheny Power disposed of land that might have been used for building hydroelectric generating facilities, might have been used for the construction of power transmission lines, or might have been judiciously timbered, to generate income for the utility or might have been sold to the National Park Service, which wants to buy the land for public recreation. The sale, which is the subject of the instant case, has generated income that could be used to lower the price of electricity paid by West Virginia consumers. That sale affects the West Virginia utility-buying publicand therefore is subject to review by the Public Service Commission. Furthermore, the Public Service Commission has been charged with balancing the interests of current and future utility customers, the general interests of the State's economy and the interests of the utilities.... W.Va.Code, 24-1-1(b) [1986]. Tens of thousands of tourists visit Blackwater Falls State Park, and look out across the land sold by Allegheny Power. That land is now being scalped clean of all trees, and the run-off is polluting the Blackwater River and killing the remaining flora and fauna. [3] Tourism to the Blackwater Falls State Park region is certainly in the general interests of the State's economy, and will likely suffer when the Blackwater Canyon is gutted of all vegetation. But the Public Service Commission has ignored the general interests of the State's economy and denies that it has jurisdiction over Allegheny Power. The Commission has allowed the sale of West Virginia's Grand Canyon to a timber company, without public scrutiny. The Commission has thereby cut off its nose to spite its faceor, in this case, is allowing the trees of the Blackwater Canyon to be cut down to spite West Virginia's tourism industry.