Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission John Avery held a press conference today to explain the commission’s case against BEL. As you might guess, it’s a long story; indeed the one man press conference went on for more than an hour and all the talk was just about BEL. But the short version of this long story is that while BEL continues to bawl about being in a financial crisis, the PUC maintains that the company is not only viable but in a strong financial position.
John Avery, PUC Chairman
“What BEL has been doing is saying okay, you approve these tariffs, we charge the consumers, we generate this amount of revenue but we will again deduct the corrections from the amount of revenue and basically underreport the revenues we’ve actually collected. That is what BEL has been doing here. This is saying that in 2008 when BEL took out its expenses that it spent for 2008 and they report the correct revenue that they collected for 2008, BEL ended up with a positive cash flow of $36 million for 2008, out of the operations for 2008. We cannot see how this represents any kind of dire financial crisis that they can’t pay their bills and they can’t do what they need to do to provide the services they are required by law and by their license to provide. And so the Commission is firm in its position that its decision did not create any financial crisis for BEL as they are now portraying the decision to do.
But BEL does not want to cooperate with the regulator. BEL does not want to move forward. BEL basically, in our opinion, wants to have its own way. It may even want to regulate the regulator.”
BEL and the PUC will face off in court shortly when the appeal of the PUC’s June 2008 decision is heard. Until then, the rate cuts that the PUC ordered will not go into effect.
