The nation’s grid regulator moved Thursday to ensure that President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts reduce customer utility bills.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a proposed rulemaking that would require all publicly-owned utility companies that own transmission lines “to revise” their rates to account for the benefits they received under the tax reform package.
The tax reform bill passed last December cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent beginning in 2018. A number of states’ energy commissions have already directed the utilities they regulate at the retail level to account for the changes and grant credits to ratepayers.
FERC’s proposed tax rule would apply to the interstate transportation of energy only, where it has jurisdiction over the wholesale electricity and natural gas markets.
FERC also issued a policy statement on Thursday that provided ratemaking guidance for all companies under FERC’s jurisdiction to account for the tax benefits they received. Those companies include public utilities, owners and operators of natural gas and oil pipelines.
FERC also acted on 46 show-cause investigations, directing certain public utilities whose transmission tariffs used a tax rate of 35 percent to reduce their tax rates to 21 percent, or show why they did not need to do so.
The agency also received three filings from natural gas pipeline companies, including the Millennium Pipeline Company, North Baja Pipeline, and Vector Pipeline. It also accepted a settlement from Kern River Gas Transmission Company regarding its following the commission’s orders on reporting tax equity it received before and after the tax reform bill was passed.
