DISCRIMINATION RATE CASE HAS WIDE INTEREST
Discrimina ti on Rate Case Has Wide Interest Municipal Utilities Are-Concerned With FPC Ruling By Editorial Research Reports WASHlNGTON, D. c.—Wide pub-W lie attention has been attracted by the...
...He maintained that the smaller villages should sell their distribution systems to '.he company instead of trying to operate the system themselves...
...They suggested instead that the company be required to file with the commission a new schedule of rates, with supporting data, which would be fair to all of the cities and towns...
...The company did not contest the fact that discrimination existed, and was overruled in its contention that the power commission had no jurisdiction over wholesale rates to municipalities...
...was charging higher rf.tes to seme of the villages in the hope cf forcing them to sell their distribution systems to the company...
...1939...
...case, first case to be decided by the Federal Power commission dealing with discrimination by a public utility company in ra.es charged for electric energy purchased by municipal distributing systems...
...Two commissioners, in separate dis-sen.in™ opinions, agreed that the discrimination was unlawful, but questioned the propriety of applying the lowest existing rate to the other villages and towns in the area served without determining whether such a rate would provide a fair return...
...He said: "A little town like Marvin, with a population of 150, is just out of luck, that's all...
...Has Authority Even the dissenting commissioners agreed that the commission has ample authority to order a power company to cease and desist from such discrimination, but they did not agree that in this particular case the lowest rate charged to any of the municipal distribution systems would be a fair rate for all of them...
...and to two retail distribution companies, varied from 1.54 cejnts to 5.90 cents a kilowatt hour...
...while the case was pcridin...
...The wholesale rates charged by the power company to five cities and towns in Minnesota and South Dako'.a...
...It would reduce retail electric rates to the standard levels obtaining in o her communities where power was distributed at retail by the company...
...The commission's opinion In the Otter Tail case is of Interest to all municipalities which operate their own electric distribution systems, particularly because of evidence that the Otter Tail Power Co...
...Discrimina ti on Rate Case Has Wide Interest Municipal Utilities Are-Concerned With FPC Ruling By Editorial Research Reports WASHlNGTON, D. c.—Wide pub-W lie attention has been attracted by the Otter Tail Power Co...
...The rehearing has been ordered because the commission did not have before it at the first hearing the report of a representative of the board of railroad commissioners of North Hikcta who had been co-operating in the case...
...The company had agreed that when it acquired the distribution system...
...The majority opinion in this case, signed by three of the five members of the Federal Power commission, held tho.t discrimination among municipalities in the sale of electricity is clearly unlawful, and that such a situation may properly be corrected by ordering the utility company to furnish power to all of the municipalities affected at the lowest rate actually in effect for any of them, without undertaking a complete "rate case" to determine the fairness of the rate...
...The Marvin distribu'.ion system was in fact sold to the power company in September...
...The vice president and general manager of the power company testified during the hearing that the rates were arrived at by personal bargaining between himself and representatives of the municipal distribution systems...
...The commission has just granted a rehearing in the case, but it says this action is based only on an error in procedure and in no way invalidates the important precedents established by the original order handed down last month...
Vol. 10 • June 1940 • No. 25
