Maine Questions Jurisdiction, Closes Stranded Cost Case

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has terminated an ongoing rulemaking on stranded-cost recovery by electric utilities in the state. In closing the docket, the PUC cited proposed rules recently issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as evidence of FERC jurisdiction in the matter. The PUC noted that it had carefully drafted its own stranded investment case to avoid jurisdictional conflicts (em by limiting its proposed rule to the recovery of costs incurred to serve retail customers, and by employing an exit-fee recovery mechanism rather than one involving transmission pricing and access. According to the PUC, the FERC expanded the scope of its jurisdiction over stranded costs to encompass retail facilities, finding "a nexus between the availability of wholesale transmission and the stranding of costs when a retail customer becomes a wholesale customer through municipalization." While stating that it did "not necessarily agree with the FERC's jurisdictional analysis," the PUC concluded that continuing the case was impractical. Re Recovery of Stranded Costs, Docket No. 95-055, Apr. 18, 1995 (Me.P.U.C.).