PUC: Utilities Need To Share Windfall From Trump Tax Breaks With Customers
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Among the corporations benefiting from President Trump's tax breaks are several utility companies in Pennsylvania.
So what are they going to do with all that money? That's what the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission wants to figure out.
PUC spokesman Nils Hagen-Frederiksen says shortly after Congress adopted the Trump tax breaks and the president signed them into law in January, the PUC opened an inquiry to gather information from utility companies, consumer advocates and other groups about how the tax cuts could be shared with customers..
"Our staff and our technical experts, our financial experts and our legal team are in the process of continuing to go through not only the data that we got from utilities, but also the responses that we received," he said, "and we received a very strong response."
Frederiksen says the panel took action this past week to list some three dozen major utility companies in a rate order that opens the door to refunds for customers.
"It doesn't change the rates at this point because the review and the analysis is still ongoing," he explained. "But what it does is maximizes the PUC's authority in the future to establish refunds or other rate adjustments that the commission would deem to be necessary, just and reasonable."
Among the utilities in the order - PECO - both its electric and gas operations - Aqua Pennsylvania, UGI, Met-Ed, PP&L and Pennsylvania American Water.
