The Ohio Supreme Court has concluded its review of the municipalization dispute between Toledo Edison Co., an electric utility, and the City of Clyde. The court said that a city ordinance passed on January 17, 1995, seeking to force the utility to stop providing service within municipal boundaries, violated state law in attempting to accomplish the municipalization of Toledo Edison's facilities without the approval of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Nevertheless, the court also rejected Toledo Edison's claims that the same law protected its right to serve new facilities and customers not yet in existence. The ordinance only violates state law to the extent that enforcement "amounts to forced abandonment of existing facilities and service," the court explained. The ruling follows a PUC decision denying the city's application for authorization to substitute its service for that of Toledo Edison and to require the utility to remove most of its distribution facilities from the city. See, Re City of Clyde, 168 PUR4th 114 (Ohio P.U.C. 1996).
