Abby L. Harvey
GHG Monitor
11/6/2015
The Mississippi Supreme Court late last week denied a request by a local businessman to overturn an August emergency rate increase for Mississippi Power. The temporary 18 percent rate hike was approved by the Mississippi Public Service Commission on Aug. 13 and was immediately challenged in the form of a petition to the Mississippi Supreme Court. The petition, filed by Thomas Blanton, who has brought legal challenge against the company several times, asserted the new emergency rate increase violates a February court decision.
In response to Blanton’s petition, Mississippi Power argued the petition was “procedurally flawed,” stating that “Blanton’s proper remedy, as provided by Mississippi law, was to request rehearing or to seek appellate review at the appropriate time.”
The emergency rate increase issued in August replaced a rate hike overturned by the state Supreme Court in February that was intended to help fund the company’s Kemper County Energy Facility. The Kemper project, a first-of-its-kind new-build coal-fired power plant that will employ carbon capture and storage technology, has been plagued by cost overruns and delays.
Due to this financial hardship, and the fact that the Kemper facility, though not yet at full operation, has been supplying the surrounding community with electricity generated with natural gas, the Public Service Commission ruled the emergency rate increase justifiable.
Under the overturned 2013 rate order, the commission approved a 15 percent retail rate increase for roughly 186,000 ratepayers in March of that year, plus a 3 percent boost effective January 2014, totaling approximately $257 million over the two years, to help pay for the Kemper facility.
The state Supreme Court ruled in February that the commission never found the costs of the plant were prudently incurred. It ordered Mississippi Power to refund money collected under the rate increase, totaling roughly $377 million.
In an Aug. 21 petition filed with the court, Blanton charged that the new rate increase violates the February decision, which ordered the commission to “grant no further rate increases until there is full compliance with the Court’s decision.” Furthermore, Blanton noted the Public Service Commission has yet to determine the prudence of the Kemper project, though a hearing is scheduled for Nov. 10. “This Court should direct the Public Service Commission to rescind the August 13, 2015 interim rate increase and disallow any rate increase by Mississippi Power Company until there has been a prudence finding,” Blanton argued.
