Court Opinion

ID: 9645246
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 21:18:17.976339+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:25.906471
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Paolino,
dissenting. I would have granted the requested suspension of Order No. 9214 and allowed the company to pass through to its retail customers the increased purchased power expense subject to refund. See G.L. 1956 (1969 Reenactment) §39-5-4. I adopt this view for the simple reason that, while the permanence of the charges for wholesale power being levied by NEPCO with the FPC’s permission is still somewhat in doubt, the fact that the company has incurred additional expenses in excess of $3.8 million from March 1, 1976 to July 31, 1976, is undisputed. That figure has undoubtedly increased considerably in the past 2 months.
*946This court held in New England Tel. & Tel. Co. v. Public Util. Comm’n, 116 R.I. 356, 358 A.2d 1 (1976), that deficiencies in a utility company’s earnings resulting from regulatory lag are forever lost to the company because only in other very limited circumstances will retroactive collection of rates be permitted. Thus, in a situation like the one now before us, very large expenses actually incurred during the pendency of a rate case amount to so much water under the bridge. Unless this court issues a suspension of the commission’s own suspension order, those expenses can never be recovered from the company’s retail customers.
In my view, the currently approved rate, having concededly become confiscatory since the implementation of the higher purchased power expense experienced in recent months, should be amended, at least temporarily and subject to refund, so that the company will not undergo a continued steady drain on its capital reserves.
Finally, it is my opinion that, even in the event that the FPC order that precipitated this crisis is rescinded, the public interest would be adequately protected if the company were to file a bond running to the commission conditioned that the company shall repay to its customers all collected sums in excess of the ultimately approved rate.