STATE OF MISSOURI
PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION
At a session of the Public Service Commission held at its office in Jefferson City on the 24th day of November, 2014.
In the Matter of )
Summit Natural Gas of Missouri Inc.’s )
File No. GR-2014-0086
Filing of Revised Tariffs to Increase its )
Tracking No. YG-2015-0207
Annual Revenues for Natural Gas Service )
ORDER REGARDING COMPLIANCE
TARIFFS AND EXPEDITED TREATMENT
Issue Date:
November 24, 2014 Effective
Date: December 14, 2014
The
Missouri Public Service Commission is approving the pending tariff sheets[1]
as substituted[2]
(“compliance tariff”) and denying the Motion
for Expedited Treatment (“motion”).[3] Staff filed
its recommendation in favor of the compliance tariff and the motion.[4] The Office of the Public Counsel filed a
response in opposition to the motion.[5] Summit filed
a reply in support of the motion.[6]
The
compliance tariff conforms to the Report
and Order[7]
and carries a 30-day effective date. The motion proposes an expedited effective
date for the compliance tariff of December 1, 2014. That expedited date is less
than 30 days from the issuance of this order, [8] and so must
stand on good cause.[9]
Good cause is absent. The Commission must allow a reasonable time for any party
to seek rehearing of this order approving the compliance tariffs. The Court of
Appeals has expressly instructed the Commission that any effective date set
less than ten days from issuance of an order is “presumptively unreasonable
and, if challenged, would require the PSC to demonstrate that the circumstances
surrounding the case are so extraordinary as to clearly warrant further
encroachment on the time provided to the parties in which to exercise their
right to apply for rehearing and/or appeal and that the time allowed was
reasonably sufficient.[10]
The circumstances of this case are not so extraordinary as to warrant an
encroachment on the parties’ right to apply for rehearing.
Therefore,
the Commission will approve the compliance tariff[11] and deny
the motion.
THE COMMISSION ORDERS THAT:
1.
The Motion for Expedited Treatment is denied and the tariff sheets, to
which the Commission assigned Tracking No. YG-2015-0207, are approved to become
effective on December 14, 2014.
2.
The specific tariff sheets
approved are set forth in the Appendix to this order.
3.
This order shall be effective on
December 14, 2014.
BY THE COMMISSION
Morris
L. Woodruff
Secretary
R. Kenney, Chm., Stoll, W. Kenney,
Hall, and Rupp, CC., concur.
Jordan, Senior Regulatory Law Judge
[1] Electronic Filing and Information System (“EFIS”) No.
278, filed on November 14, 2014.
[2] EFIS No. 281, filed on November 19, 2014.
[3] EFIS No. 277, filed on November 14, 2014.
[4] EFIS No. 282, Staff
Recommendation to Approve Tariff Sheets, filed on November 21, 2014.
[5] EFIS No. 284, Public
Counsel's Reply to Motion for Expedited Treatment, filed on November 21,
2014.
[6] EFIS No. 285, Response
to Public Counsel's Reply, filed
on November 23, 2014.
[7] EFIS No. 273, filed on October 29, 2014.
[8] Between the expedited date and the date this order
issues are six days. Of those days, all but two are a Saturday, Sunday, or
State holiday.
[9] Section 386.490.2, RSMo Supp. 2014.
[10] State ex
rel. Office of Pub. Counsel v. Pub. Serv. Comm'n of State, 409 S.W.3d
522, 529 (Mo. App., W.D. 2013).
[11] Section 393.150.1, RSMo 2000.