The Arkansas Public Service Commission is considering joining Louisiana utility regulators to aggressively pursue increasing a potential customer refund and settlement with Entergy Corp. through the federal court system. A decision from the state commission could come later this week.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission filed a lawsuit Aug. 17 asking an appeals court to prompt the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to act quickly on cost overruns and other problems related to the operation of the Grand Gulf Nuclear Station operated by Entergy in Port Gibson, Miss. The suit was filed in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.
"We are aware of the 5th circuit filing and are considering supporting the filing," Arkansas PSC Chairman Ted Thomas said in a statement Monday.
State regulators in Arkansas and Louisiana have been in a legal dispute with Entergy over Grand Gulf for several years before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which has generally ruled in the utilities' favor, but the entire issue has not been resolved.
Louisiana regulators are growing impatient. The lawsuit asks the appeals court to require the regulatory commission to accept, reject or set a hearing to resolve the ongoing quarrel. The suit notes that final decisions on several regulatory commission filings have been delayed for about five years, and that the delays are hurting ratepayers. The nuclear plant, meanwhile, continues to generate high costs that are passed on to customers, the suit contends.
"Each day of FERC's inaction imposes irreparable injury on consumers," the filing says, asking that the appeals court require a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission decision within 90 days. Quick action also is needed before any deadlines for refunds expire, the suit says, adding that Louisiana customers are paying $4 million in excessive costs each month while awaiting a decision.
As part of the FERC complaint, last month the Arkansas commission rejected a $142 million settlement offer from Entergy, with the commission saying the bid was "a low-ball amount" and did not include a cash refund for Arkansas ratepayers.
Likewise, the Louisiana commission and regulators in New Orleans have rejected settlement offers from the company. Mississippi regulators reached a settlement valued at $300 million, including an $80 direct payment or account credit for Entergy customers in the state.
The Advocate newspaper in Baton Rouge first reported the lawsuit this past weekend. "What we're experiencing right now, yet another extended and surprise outage, is just illustrative of the last [six years] that has been an enormous drag on the pocketbooks of people in Entergy footprints," Logan Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy, told the newspaper.
Last month, in rejecting Entergy's offer, the Arkansas commission asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to hold a hearing to examine the "continued imprudent mismanagement" of the Grand Gulf plant.
Grand Gulf has not been operating since July 12 as Entergy replaces equipment at the facility. During the shutdown, natural gas prices are spiking and forcing consumers to pay more for the electricity they receive from Entergy, according to the Louisiana commission's lawsuit.
Complaints against Entergy with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission date back to 2017, though the lawsuit involving the claimed mismanagement of the nuclear plant was filed in March 2021. The commission has taken no action on that filing.
Construction of Grand Gulf began in the 1970s, and the plant was commissioned in 1985. Original cost estimates for the project were $1.2 billion, but costs soared to more than $5 billion. The states' primary complaint was that Entergy inflated its profitability and charged customers for it.