Kansas utility regulators said Thursday that they may ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case challenging the federal government’s authority to set certain kinds of rates that ultimately affect every electric customer’s monthly bills.
But first, they want advice from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
The Kansas Corporation Commission voted 3-0 to ask Schmidt whether it would be possible to appeal a decision of a federal appellate court, which ruled in February that the KCC had no standing to challenge a decision from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, involving rates charged by interstate electric transmission companies.
The case involves an aspect of the public utility business that most customers rarely think about, but which can have a substantial impact on the ultimate rates they pay for electricity — the wholesale purchase of power from one utility to another through transmission lines that run across state lines.
(Read more: LJWorld.com / Lawrence, Kansas)