2013 Kentucky Revised Statutes CHAPTER 278 - PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION 278.183 Surcharge to recover costs of compliance with environmental requirements for coal combustion wastes and by-products -- Environmental compliance plan, review and adjustment.
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278.183 Surcharge to recover costs of compliance with environmental
requirements for coal combustion wastes and by-products -Environmental compliance plan, review and adjustment.
(1)
(2)
(3)
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, effective January 1, 1993,
a utility shall be entitled to the current recovery of its costs of complying with
the Federal Clean Air Act as amended and those federal, state, or local
environmental requirements which apply to coal combustion wastes and
by-products from facilities utilized for production of energy from coal in
accordance with the utility's compliance plan as designated in subsection (2) of
this section. These costs shall include a reasonable return on construction and
other capital expenditures and reasonable operating expenses for any plant,
equipment, property, facility, or other action to be used to comply with
applicable environmental requirements set forth in this section. Operating
expenses include all costs of operating and maintaining environmental
facilities, income taxes, property taxes, other applicable taxes, and
depreciation expenses as these expenses relate to compliance with the
environmental requirements set forth in this section.
Recovery of costs pursuant to subsection (1) of this section that are not
already included in existing rates shall be by environmental surcharge to
existing rates imposed as a positive or negative adjustment to customer bills in
the second month following the month in which costs are incurred. Each utility,
before initially imposing an environmental surcharge pursuant to this
subsection, shall thirty (30) days in advance file a notice of intent to file said
plan and subsequently submit to the commission a plan, including any
application required by KRS 278.020(1), for complying with the applicable
environmental requirements set forth in subsection (1) of this section. The plan
shall include the utility's testimony concerning a reasonable return on
compliance-related capital expenditures and a tariff addition containing the
terms and conditions of a proposed surcharge as applied to individual rate
classes. Within six (6) months of submittal, the commission shall conduct a
hearing to:
(a) Consider and approve the plan and rate surcharge if the commission
finds the plan and rate surcharge reasonable and cost-effective for
compliance with the applicable environmental requirements set forth in
subsection (1) of this section;
(b) Establish a reasonable return on compliance-related capital expenditures;
and
(c) Approve the application of the surcharge.
The amount of the monthly environmental surcharge shall be filed with the
commission ten (10) days before it is scheduled to go into effect, along with
supporting data to justify the amount of the surcharge which shall include data
and information as may be required by the commission. At six (6) month
intervals, the commission shall review past operations of the environmental
surcharge of each utility, and after hearing, as ordered, shall, by temporary
adjustment in the surcharge, disallow any surcharge amounts found not just
and reasonable and reconcile past surcharges with actual costs recoverable
pursuant to subsection (1) of this section. Every two (2) years the commission
(4)
(5)
shall review and evaluate past operation of the surcharge, and after hearing, as
ordered, shall disallow improper expenses, and to the extent appropriate,
incorporate surcharge amounts found just and reasonable into the existing
base rates of each utility.
The commission may employ competent, qualified independent consultants to
assist the commission in its review of the utility's plan of compliance as
specified in subsection (2) of this section. The cost of any consultant shall be
included in the surcharge approved by the commission.
The commission shall retain all jurisdiction granted by this section and KRS
278.020 to review the environmental surcharge authorized by this section and
any complaints as to the amount of any environmental surcharge or the
incorporation of any environmental surcharge into the existing base rate of any
utility.
Effective:July 14, 1992
History: Created 1992 Ky. Acts ch. 102, sec. 1, effective July 14, 1992.
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