Commissioner James Danly Statement
December 7, 2020
Docket No. ER21-69-000
The Commission’s order issued in this docket today grants the request of American Electric Power Service Corporation (AEP) and its affiliates Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO) and Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO) (collectively, AEP) to implement retroactive revisions to AEP’s formula rate template. I recognize that AEP has presented sympathetic facts in support of its request. Nevertheless, as I explained in detail in my dissent in Sunflower, the approval of such a retroactive rate change exceeds our legal authority under the Federal Power Act, as defined by two legal doctrines: the filed rate doctrine and the rule against retroactive ratemaking.[1]
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.
[1] See Sunflower Elec. Power Corp., 173 FERC ¶ 61,054 (2020) (Danly, Comm’r, dissenting at P 5) (Sunflower).