States to US: Pass along utilities’ tax savings to customers

ALBANY, N.Y. – Attorneys general, consumer advocates and regulators in more than a dozen states are asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure that utility customers also benefit from windfalls utilities will reap from corporate tax cuts included in the federal tax overhaul.

In a letter sent to the commission Tuesday, the coalition calls for an investigation into the “justness and reasonableness” of utility rates now that the tax cuts approved by Congress last month reduce the corporate income tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent.

The attorneys general who signed the letter are from New York, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas and Virginia.

Public consumer advocacy offices and state regulatory agencies from Connecticut, Florida, Maine, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont also are involved.