How do you say "no" to a multi-million dollar monopoly that's demanding a rate hike? Easy, you just write them a letter, saying nicely that it's just not happening. That's what the Public Utilities Commission did to BEL this afternoon in a letter to president Lyn Young. While BEL complains of soaring fuel prices, the PUC says there is a procedure that must be followed and you can't just ask for an increase because times are hard. At a press briefing this afternoon, PUC chairman doctor Gilly Canton explained what the ruling means to consumers:
Dr. Gilbert Canton – Chairman PUC
"What I'm telling customers at the end of the day is that under the present regulations that we have in place that we cannot address the BEL request. That we cannot approve any increase in tariffs at this point in time. That does not make us insensitive to the request and what we have been doing is looking behind the numbers to see what is involved in the request. And I can go into the details of that if that's what you would like. But basically the point that I want to makes is that we have told BEL in a letter we wrote to them this afternoon is that we will not be able to consider the request at this time because of the constraints provided under the regulations that we operated under. But we are willing to explore with them mechanisms that we can address the problem that the are facing right now."
"We don't see this as a long term financial viability problem in BEL in terms that BEL is still a company that makes a profit. It is a cash flow short term budget problem at this point in time that we can figure we can fully address in a full tariff review proceeding over the upcoming, within the next six months."
Canton says that if it wants a rate increase, bel must wait for next years full tariff review procedure, which is conducted once every four years. Speaking with us this evening, BEL president Lyn Young said that his company has never had a quarrelsome relationship with the PUC and has always been able to find solutions. He is confident that will be the case again this time around.