NH SUPREME COURT RULING

[Matt Freedman <freedman@citizen.org>]

  NEW HAMPSHIRE SUPREME COURT VOIDS EXCLUSIVE UTILITY FRANCHISES
  UNANIMOUS RULING A BLOW TO PUBLIC SERVICE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
  
  On Tuesday, May 13, The New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld 
  the right of the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission 
  (PUC) to allow retail competition within an existing utility's 
  service territory.   In PUBLIC SERVICE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE v. 
  NEW HAMPSHIRE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION, the court unanimously 
  ruled that New Hampshire law does not grant exclusive utility 
  franchises if the PUC determines that retail competition would 
  benefit the public interest.
  
  In this case, the Freedom Electric Company requested permission
  to sell electric power to retail consumers located within the
  service territory of Public Service of New Hampshire (PSNH). When 
  the New Hampshire PUC granted that request, PSNH challenged the 
  decision in court.
  
  Under New Hampshire state law, the PUC must base its decisions
  on a standard of "public good." In this ruling, the court found
  that the PUC "has broad discretionary authority to determine the 
  public good...that the commission may have historically
  interpreted the public good as requiring monopolies in the
  provision of retail electric service does not preclude it from
  adopting a new paradigm based on changing concepts of what the
  public good requires."  
  
  In perhaps one of the most significant rulings on this topic in
  years, the court concluded that "we hold that electric utility
  franchises in New Hampshire are not exclusive as a matter of
  law.  We emphasize that our decision today should not be read as 
  expressing a point of view either on the desirability of retail
  competition among electric utilities as a matter of policy or on 
  the recoverability of "stranded costs" in the event competition
  is introduced."
  
  Copies of the entire decision (about 12 pages) are available
  from Public Citizen in ASCII (text) format.  Send a message to
  Matt Freedman (cmep@citizen.org) to receive a copy.
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