PUCO Exploring Possible Electric Bill Decreases Based On Corporate Tax Cuts

Corporations are seeing big savings as the effects of the large federal tax cut take place. Now state energy regulators want to see if Ohio’s major utilities are going to pass those savings on to the ratepayers.The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio has opened up hearings to find out if utilities should decrease electric bills based on the money they’re getting from the big corporate tax cut.PUCO Chair Asim Haque won’t say what he thinks should be done, but he notes there was a similar tax cut in 1986.“And actually the commission dealt with it and we are actually following a similar rubric through the issuance of request for comments we are dealing within a similar fashion that we did in the 80’s,” said Haque.When asked if rates were reduced in that case, Haque replied, "they were."The four major utilities were all hesitant to jump into reduced distribution rates in their PUCO findings.Read the different case filings here:- AEP- Dayton Power and Light- Duke Energy- FirstEnergyFirstEnergy was the most vocal, saying their base distribution rates must stay frozen until their next rate case in 2024. Copyright 2018 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.