By a 2-1 vote, the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has placed a condition on approval of Houston Lighting and Power's (HLP) experimental tariff for special contract pricing (Rate Schedule SCP) with industrial customers whose electric power needs are or can be served by alternative sources of power: The floor of the rates must be designed to recover marginal costs (Docket No. 12957). The order on rehearing affirmed an earlier PUC decision shortening the term of the contracts from the proposed 7 to 10 years to 5 to 10 years. It also established graduated markups to the progressive stream-of-payment range, based on the year of the contract and its duration (HLP had proposed 105 percent above marginal cost):s 5- and 6-year contracts: 1995-1999, 13 percent; 1996-2000, 11 percent; 1997-2001, 9 percent
s 7-year contracts: 1995-2001, 9 to 10 percent; 1996-2002, 8 to 9 percent; 1997-2003, 7 to 8 percent
s 8 to 10-year contracts; 1995-2005, 6 to 8 percent; 1996-2006, 6 to 8 percent; 1997-2007, 6 to
8 percent.