JACKSON, Miss. 7/7/1 – Regulators on Tuesday ordered Mississippi Power Co. to lower rates later this month and plan for customer refunds by November.
In issuing the order, the Mississippi Public Service Commission voted 3-0 to comply with a state Supreme Court order that found illegal a 2013 rate increase for the $6.2 billion plant.
Read the whole article: The Sun Herald
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) 7/7/15 — Mississippi regulators plan to discuss at a Tuesday meeting how to obey a state Supreme Court order to refund about $350 million that Mississippi Power Co. has collected from customers to build a power plant in Kemper County.
The Supreme Court ruled in February that an 18 percent rate increase was illegal because regulators didn’t conduct hearings to ensure Mississippi Power was spending prudently on the $6.2 billion Kemper plant. It also ruled that regulators used an illegal rate structure, didn’t notify all ratepayers and broke public meetings law by negotiating a deal in private.
The Public Service Commission, Mississippi Power and some business groups asked the court to reconsider, but the court reaffirmed its ruling in June.
Now, commissioners must sort out how the refunds will be issued.
Read the whole article: The Jackson Free Press
by Paul H
ampton
3/1/15 HATTIESBURG, Miss. — Thomas A. Blanton is a theologian. And a student of Jean Lafitte.
An oilman. And an environmentalist.
A rock ‘n’ roll impresario twice over. And a protest singer with an unreleased album.
A fan of Mark Twain. And Uncle Remus.
A community organizer who can direct the distribution of thousands of campaign cards a day. And an unsuccessful candidate for the Public Service Commission.
A strict constitutional constructionist. And a Democrat.
A cancer survivor. And a professional hell-raiser.
He resists labeling. You could say he is eclectic. Even his friends allow he’s a bit eccentric.
With white hair flowing down his back, an eye lost to cancer and a beard gone wild, he’s the image of a pirate. But he says the only thing he’s interested in raiding is the corporate boardrooms of those interested in pocketing a fortune at the expense of the little guy, or the planet.
He’s well known in south Mississippi as the man who took on Mississippi Power and the state’s Republican political machine over the baseload act and subsequent rate increases for electricity meant to pay for the Kemper County power plant.
Read the whole article: The Sun-Herald