Commissioner James Danly Statement
December 7, 2020
Docket No. ER21-73-000
The Commission’s order issued in this docket today grants Southwestern Public Service Company’s (SPS) request to implement retroactive revisions to certain of its formula rates. I recognize that SPS 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).