Court rules against PUC in CenterPoint cost recovery case
The Minnesota Court of Appeals says the state's utilities regulator must reconsider its decision to block CenterPoint Energy from recovering $21 million from customers that it underbilled over four years.
The court said in a ruling on Tuesday that the Minnesota Public Utilities Commissions' decision was arbitrary and capricious because it didn't follow its own precedents or announce new rules.
CenterPoint claimed that due to an accounting error it failed to account for $28 million worth of natural gas it delivered to customers over five years.
The PUC let it make up for one year of the underbilling, but denied the company's request for a variance to commission rules to go after the rest. The regulators said it wasn't in the public's interest, among other reasons.
A spokeswoman for CenterPoint said the company is evaluating Tuesday's ruling. The representative of the PUC had no immediate comment.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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