El Paso Electric rate increase settlement talks sent to state mediation at city's request
Settlement negotiations on El Paso Electric’s $41.8 million rate increase proposal have been sent to state mediation at the request of city of El Paso lawyers over the objection of the Texas Public Utility Commission staff.
Extending “unfruitful settlement negotiations is not in the public interest and is costing the rate payers thousands of dollars in billable hours to private law firms while providing no benefit to the rate payers,” PUC staff argued in a Feb. 7 response to the city’s request to the State Office of Administrative Hearings, which handles the mediation.
Administrative law judges approved the mediation request Feb. 9, and ordered the case be returned to the judges, who were handling the rate case hearing, March 18, unless extended by a new order.
Lawyers for the city argued in the Feb. 7 request for mediation that a mediator may be able to help EPE, the city and others objecting to the rate increase resolve “a small number of issues” to reach a settlement.
The “additional time and expense for a mediation is not significant in the overall context of the case,” the city’s lawyers argued in the request.
If a settlement can’t be reached, then resuming the suspended rate case hearing before administrative law judges, would involve the presentation of 23 additional testimonies, “post hearing briefs and reply briefs, issuance of a proposal for decision, exceptions and replies to exceptions prior to presentation of the case to the (PUC) commissioners” for a decision in the case, the city request stated.
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On Jan. 19, judges in the State Office of Administrative Hearings agreed to suspend the rate case hearing after four days of testimony, according to the city filing, to allow further negotiations in hopes of settling several issues in the case. Negotiations have been ongoing for months, even prior to the state hearing, scheduled to last seven days prior to the suspension.
The utility, the city and other intervenors in the rate case reached a partial settlement on how much revenue El Paso Electric could get in the rate case, according to a Jan. 19 case filing. No dollar amount was reported.
The PUC staff, in its filed objection, noted that it had agreed to settle all of EPE’s previous four rate cases.
“However, not all cases lend themselves to settlement and not all settlement proposals are in the public interest. This is one of those cases," the staff's filing states.
It’s unlikely “further discussion or mediation will resolve the remaining issues, and it’s time to stop throwing good money after bad,” the staff filing concluded.
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If the rate hearing were completed, a state administrative law judge would make a recommendation on the case and send that to the PUC, which has the final decision in the case. The PUC also has to approve a settlement.
EPE in June filed a rate increase request for the El Paso area with the PUC asking for $41.8 million in rate increases, or an overall increase of 7.8%.
However, El Paso residential customers would see a much larger 13.4% increase, or an average bill increase of $11.76 per month, under EPE’s proposal – something opposed by city officials.
Vic Kolenc may be reached at 546-6421; vkolenc@elpasotimes.com; @vickolenc on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso Electric rate increase settlement talks sent to state mediator
