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Articles 31 - 60 of 120
Full-Text Articles in Energy and Utilities Law
Public Utilities - Depreciation Reserve As An Element Of Fair Value In Ascertaining Rate Base, David N. Mills
Public Utilities - Depreciation Reserve As An Element Of Fair Value In Ascertaining Rate Base, David N. Mills
Michigan Law Review
The New Hampshire Public Service Commission valued the property of a water works company at $450,000 and fixed a rate by using this figure as a base. Before allowance for depreciation, the reproduction cost was estimated to be $660,000 and the original cost was $485,000. Both parties agreed that the amount in the utility's depreciation reserve, twenty-one per cent of cost, was a reasonable figure for depreciation, which the commission deducted from the valuation. On appeal by the company, held, while it was proper to deduct depreciation at twenty-one per cent nonetheless reserve for depreciation is an "asset" which …
Federal Courts - Conflict Between The Federal Declaratory Judgments Act And The Johnson Act, Spencer E. Irons
Federal Courts - Conflict Between The Federal Declaratory Judgments Act And The Johnson Act, Spencer E. Irons
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiff gas company contracted with defendant city to furnish gas from a certain field at rates fixed by ordinance. Plaintiff reserved the right, when this field became insufficient, to furnish gas from other fields at rates to be adjusted in accordance with the increased cost. In a suit in the federal district court for a declaratory judgment, plaintiff sought a determination that the local field had become insufficient, and that it was necessary to furnish gas from other fields. Plaintiff alleged that defendant city refused to recognize the changed conditions and insisted that plaintiff continue to furnish gas at the …
Trade Restraints - Antitrust Laws - Consent Decrees - Right Of Intervention Where Decree Reopened, Gerald M. Lively
Trade Restraints - Antitrust Laws - Consent Decrees - Right Of Intervention Where Decree Reopened, Gerald M. Lively
Michigan Law Review
In 1935, the Attorney General brought a suit in equity to enforce the antitrust laws, charging Columbia Gas & Electric Corporation and its controlled instrumentality, Columbia Oil & Gasoline Corporation, and individual defendants, with having conspired for the benefit of Columbia Gas to shut out operation in the Indiana-Ohio-Michigan area by the Panhandle Eastern Pipe Line Company, which had built a natural-gas pipe line from the Texas fields to the border of Indiana. Panhandle was an offspring of Missouri-Kansas Pipe Line Company, or Mokan, which at the time of the suit owned half its stock and half its junior debt. …
Securities Legislation - Public Utility Holding Company Act Jurisdiction Of The Securities And Exchange Commission, Robert Kneeland
Securities Legislation - Public Utility Holding Company Act Jurisdiction Of The Securities And Exchange Commission, Robert Kneeland
Michigan Law Review
In 1935 the International Paper and Power Company filed an application with the Securities and Exchange Commission to secure permanent exemption from the provisions of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. While this application was pending, the company formed a plan for recapitalization of its stock, and applied to the commission for an order validating the plan. The report of the commission on this plan was approved by the requisite number of shareholders of the company, whereupon the commission entered an order purporting to exempt from the provisions of the act the stock and the warrants for stock …
Federal Power Act - Jurisdiction And Functions Of The Federal Power Commission - Constitutional Limitations, Robert P. Kneeland, Stark Ritchie
Federal Power Act - Jurisdiction And Functions Of The Federal Power Commission - Constitutional Limitations, Robert P. Kneeland, Stark Ritchie
Michigan Law Review
Before December 16, 1940, John Smith could look complacently on the muddy creek flowing through his pasture, secure in the knowledge that the right to use the waters in that stream was his, free from any outside interference, so long as he had due regard for the rights of his neighbors. Now, however, John Smith would do well to examine the myriad regulations and provisions of the federal statutes before damming that creek to store up water for his cows during the dry season. It is entirely possible that his muddy creek would now be considered a "navigable" stream in …
Measures Of Land Value For Utility Regulation, Lrston R. Barnes
Measures Of Land Value For Utility Regulation, Lrston R. Barnes
Michigan Law Review
The appraisal of the land of utility corporations presents problems that are not encountered in the valuation of other utility properties. The basic principles and methods of appraisal applicable to other properties are considered inappropriate for the valuation of lands, and certain inconsistencies between the treatment of land and other properties suggest embarrassing questions as to the principles which should guide the regulation of utility rates. Two concrete problems may serve to provide orientation for the discussion which follows: What elements of cost imposed on utilities in the acquisition of real estate are entitled to consideration in establishing rates? To …
Public Utilities - Municipal Corporations - Power Of Municipal Corporations To Regulate Public Utility Rates - Finality Of Such Regulation, John S. Pennell
Public Utilities - Municipal Corporations - Power Of Municipal Corporations To Regulate Public Utility Rates - Finality Of Such Regulation, John S. Pennell
Michigan Law Review
Since the decision in the case of Munn v. Illinois it has been settled that where property is devoted to a public use and is charged with a public interest, the state may prescribe reasonable rates for such public service. However, the question then arises as to the manner in which the state may prescribe these rates, through what agencies it may act, and the effect on the total picture of rate regulation within a state after there has been action by one of the proper agencies. The answers to these questions depend to a large extent upon the particular …
Public Utilities - Due Process - Validity Of Order Reducing Intrastate Telephone Rates To Conform To Interstate Rates, Michigan Law Review
Public Utilities - Due Process - Validity Of Order Reducing Intrastate Telephone Rates To Conform To Interstate Rates, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, by order of March 15, 1938, required appellant, the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania, to reduce its intrastate toll rates for distances exceeding thirty-six miles so as to conform to rates charged by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company for comparable distances for interstate services. After full hearing the commission based its order upon .findings that the interstate American Company offered at substantially lower rates the very same service, with identical facilities, accorded by its intrastate subsidiary, plus the additional service furnished by a connecting company, and that hence the higher intrastate rates constituted an …
Inconsistencies In Public Utility Depreciation: Deduction Of Depreciation For Rate Base Purposes, Robert D. Haun
Inconsistencies In Public Utility Depreciation: Deduction Of Depreciation For Rate Base Purposes, Robert D. Haun
Michigan Law Review
When considering depreciation for rate base purposes the courts and the commissions speak of accrued depreciation, existing depreciation, actual depreciation, complete depreciation, realized depreciation, incomplete depreciation, and observed depreciation. Accrued, existing and actual depreciation all have the same meaning.
Public Utilities - Consumers' Actions To Enforce Performance Of Public Duties, Edmund R. Blaske
Public Utilities - Consumers' Actions To Enforce Performance Of Public Duties, Edmund R. Blaske
Michigan Law Review
The petitioner, suing on behalf of himself and ten thousand other consumers, sought to compel the defendant gas company to furnish gas in accordance with the terms of a rate ordinance. The defendant challenged the petitioner's right to sue, on the ground that statutes had conferred this right upon the city solicitor. Held, the statutes were not intended to abrogate a consumer's common-law right to compel a utility company to perform its public duty. Maxwell v. Ohio Fuel Gas Co., 61 Ohio App. 394, 22 N. E. (2d) 639 (1939).
Inconsistencies In Public Utility Depreciation, Robert D. Haun
Inconsistencies In Public Utility Depreciation, Robert D. Haun
Michigan Law Review
Depreciation is a matter of valuation and of the determination of the cost of rendering public service. It is only incidentally related to replacements, and accounting for depreciation will not necessarily provide for replacements. Since depreciation does have to do primarily with valuation and determination of the cost of rendering service, and since capital devoted to public utility use is subject to regulation, it would seem that consistency in principles is not only desirable but attainable. It is the purpose of this article to examine the cases decided by the courts and by the regulatory commissions of the various jurisdictions …
Public Utilities - Rate Regulation - Validity Of Temporary Rate Order, Thomas K. Fisher
Public Utilities - Rate Regulation - Validity Of Temporary Rate Order, Thomas K. Fisher
Michigan Law Review
Of interest to students of public utility rate regulation will be the case of Driscoll v. Edison Light & Power Co. in which the United States Supreme Court side-stepped a reconsideration of the fair value rule as announced in Smyth v. Ames, and a determination of the constitutionality of temporary rates based on the prudent investment theory.
Wanted: A New Definition Of The Rate Base, Paul G. Kauper
Wanted: A New Definition Of The Rate Base, Paul G. Kauper
Michigan Law Review
Public utility problems today have a conspicuous place on the stage of national life. The New Deal's imposing yardstick: program and its policy of encouraging municipal ownership and operation of utility services by means of P.W.A. grants have focused attention chiefly on the issue of public versus private ownership. However, there are indications that a truce between the federal agencies and the private utilities is at hand and that, in consideration of the undertaking on the part of the private utilities to finance capital improvements and additions on a large scale and thereby contribute to general economic improvement, the New …
Securities Legislation - Public Utility Holding Company Act Of 1935 - Extension Of Maturity Date As New "Issue", Edmund O'Hare
Securities Legislation - Public Utility Holding Company Act Of 1935 - Extension Of Maturity Date As New "Issue", Edmund O'Hare
Michigan Law Review
Defendant a public utility holding company, wished to obtain a one year extension of the maturity date of its unsecured "5 1/2 % Convertible Investment Certificates" by inducing the holders thereof to assent to such extension in return for a twenty per cent payment of the principal of each certificate. The Securities and Exchange Commission sued to enjoin defendant from using the mails or other instrumentalities of interstate commerce in carrying out its plan, because defendant had not filed a declaration under section 7 of the Public Utilities Holding Company Act of 1935, in connection with the proposed extension. Held …
Constitutional Law - Public Utilities - Standing Of Public Utilities To Challenge The Constitutionality Of The Tva, Michigan Law Review
Constitutional Law - Public Utilities - Standing Of Public Utilities To Challenge The Constitutionality Of The Tva, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Eighteen electric utilities, with non-exclusive franchises and in direct competition with the TVA in selling power wholesale to municipalities, cooperatives and large industrial plants, sought to enjoin the activities and projects of the TVA and its directors as being unconstitutional and as contravening their rights under the fifth, ninth, and tenth amendments. Fraud, duress, and misrepresentations in securing customers were charged. A court of three judges dismissed the bill, holding that there was no fraud or duress and that the TVA was constitutional. Fourteen utilities appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Held, with Justices Butler and McReynolds dissenting, …
Public Utilities - Franchises - Enforceability Against Utility Of Franchise Provision Regarding Rates When City Is Not Bound, Menefee D. Blackwell
Public Utilities - Franchises - Enforceability Against Utility Of Franchise Provision Regarding Rates When City Is Not Bound, Menefee D. Blackwell
Michigan Law Review
The charter of the city of Texarkana, Texas, provided that none of the privileges usually granted public utilities should be enjoyed in the city except such as were permitted by franchise given by the city council, and that such franchises should expressly reserve the right of regulating the utilities. The city entered a franchise agreement with respondent utility by which rates charged in the Texas city were not to be higher than those charged in another part of the city which was in Arkansas. The Arkansas rates were lowered by judicial action, and this proceeding was to enforce the lower …
Taxation - Public Utilities - Implied Condition In Utility Franchise Of Tax Exemption, Allen A. Rubin
Taxation - Public Utilities - Implied Condition In Utility Franchise Of Tax Exemption, Allen A. Rubin
Michigan Law Review
In 1917 the city of New York and the New York Municipal Railway Corporation, predecessor in interest of the appellant, the New York Rapid Transit Corporation, entered into a contract for the operation of part of the city's transit system. The Transit Corporation was thereby obligated to furnish its services for a five cent fare, which by city charter provision could not be changed without the approval on referendum of a majority of the qualified voters. Other relevant portions of the contract provided that the corporation should pay all taxes upon its property and taxes incurred in connection with the …
Public Utilities - Power Of City To Reduce Rates Allowed By Franchise, M. D. Blackwell
Public Utilities - Power Of City To Reduce Rates Allowed By Franchise, M. D. Blackwell
Michigan Law Review
The city of Miami gave a franchise to a utility to sell electric power, providing that after a stated period of time it should have the right to charge rates which would enable it to have an annual return of at least ten per cent on the rate base over and above operating expenses. The right to set rates, however, was made "subject to the lawful regulatory authority of the city or state commission having jurisdiction," and it was further provided that "this grant shall at all times be subject to the right of the state of Florida, directly or …
Constitutional Law -Validity Of Registration Provisions Of Public Utility Holding Company Act Of 1935, Gerald L. Stoetzer
Constitutional Law -Validity Of Registration Provisions Of Public Utility Holding Company Act Of 1935, Gerald L. Stoetzer
Michigan Law Review
In recognition of the abuses that arise from the monopolistic tendencies of holding companies in the public utility field and of the inability of the respective states to exert the necessary control thereof, Congress has attempted to draw certain of the public utility holding companies within the inquisitorial and regulatory control of the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. The Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935, reciting in great detail facts showing the necessity for control of holding companies having as subsidiaries electric and gas operating utilities, indicates that Congress regarded the uncontrolled utility holding company as "an agency which, …
Public Utilities - Rate Regulation - Reproduction Cost And Prudent Investment As Factors In Determining "Fair Value", Erwin B. Ellmann
Public Utilities - Rate Regulation - Reproduction Cost And Prudent Investment As Factors In Determining "Fair Value", Erwin B. Ellmann
Michigan Law Review
At a hearing conducted by the California Railroad Commission, the existing gas rates charged by a utility were deemed unreasonable, and a new schedule of rates was prescribed. The commission, in determining the rate base, used historical cost exclusively, and refused to attach any weight to the present cost of reproducing the properties. A three-judge federal court enjoined the enforcement of the rates without making a finding that as prescribed the rates were confiscatory. Held, by a majority of the Court, the trial court was without power to enjoin the enforcement of the rates, regardless of the method of …
Constitutional Law - Public Works Administration - Validity - Requisite Interest To Challenge Constitutionality, Gerald L. Stoetzer
Constitutional Law - Public Works Administration - Validity - Requisite Interest To Challenge Constitutionality, Gerald L. Stoetzer
Michigan Law Review
After three years of prolonged litigation which has deprived the nation of many intended immediate benefits, another New Deal measure commonly known as the Public Works Administration has withstood the legal attacks persistently made upon it. One of the earliest enactments of the Seventy-third Congress during the present administration, Title II of the National Industrial Recovery Act, passed with the view of directing the country from an economic abyss, recently received judicial sanction in the United States Supreme Court, although Title I of the same act was early attacked and decreed unconstitutional in Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States. Title …
Public Utilities - Collections - Discontinuance Of Service, Charles E. Nadeau
Public Utilities - Collections - Discontinuance Of Service, Charles E. Nadeau
Michigan Law Review
Defendant's rate schedule provided for a minimum charge of $1 per month for each month of the year. Plaintiff was connected to defendant's system in May. The first electric bill included four dollars as the minimum charge for the months from January to May, defendant claiming that the minimum charges ran from the first of the calendar year. Plaintiff paid for the other items but refused payment of the four dollars. Service was discontinued in July. The lower court decided that it did not have jurisdiction to give either an injunction or damages. Held, where an account is honestly …
Torts - Liability Of Power Company To Resident For Non-Performance Of Contract With City To Keep Street Light Burning, Paul R. Trigg
Torts - Liability Of Power Company To Resident For Non-Performance Of Contract With City To Keep Street Light Burning, Paul R. Trigg
Michigan Law Review
Defendant public utility was under contract to a municipality to light the streets. Plaintiff, a local resident, was injured in an automobile collision which, he alleged, was caused by defendant's negligent failure to keep a certain street light burning. Defendant demurred. Held, that the demurrer was properly sustained. Tollison v. Georgia Power Co., 53 Ga. App. 795, 187 S. E. 181 (1936).
Public Utilities - Constitutionality Of Statute Imposing Regulatory Costs Upon Utilities, Charles W. Allen
Public Utilities - Constitutionality Of Statute Imposing Regulatory Costs Upon Utilities, Charles W. Allen
Michigan Law Review
A state statute imposed an annual fee of one-tenth of one per cent of gross operating revenues upon public utilities. The fees were placed in a state revolving fund used to defray the expenses of administration of the public service law. Plaintiff railroad paid the fees under protest and brought an action to recover that amount, claiming that the act was unconstitutional. The trial court held that the act was unconstitutional on its face. The state supreme court revised this decision, holding that act valid and placing the burden of proof on the plaintiff to show that it had become …
Municipal Corporations - Implied Power To Sell Appliances As Incidental To Power To Operate Municipal Light Plant, Milton Rabinowitz
Municipal Corporations - Implied Power To Sell Appliances As Incidental To Power To Operate Municipal Light Plant, Milton Rabinowitz
Michigan Law Review
A Massachusetts statute authorized municipalities to "construct, purchase or lease, and maintain . . . one or more plants for the manufacture or distribution of gas or electricity for municipal use, or for the use of its inhabitants." Pursuant to this statute the town of Concord contracted with the Edison Electric Company of Boston to supply the municipal light plant with electrical energy for distribution by the latter to local consumers. In order to take advantage of a lower rate to enable it to meet the competition of a privately owned gas company, the municipality sought to increase consumption by …
Public Utilities - Original Cost Of Plant As Item In Company Accounts, Emma Rae Mann
Public Utilities - Original Cost Of Plant As Item In Company Accounts, Emma Rae Mann
Michigan Law Review
Forty-four telephone companies, thirty-seven of them members of the Bell system, and seven of them members of another group, sued to set aside an order of the Federal Communications Commission prescribing a uniform system of accounts for telephone companies. The companies contended that the system of accounts ordered prevented them from realizing a fair return on their total investment. The Court held that the order of the commission was valid and dismissed the bill. American Tel. & Tel. Co. v. United States, 299 U.S. 232, 57 S. Ct. 170 (1936).
Commission Jurisdiction Over Utility Cooperatives, Israel Packel
Commission Jurisdiction Over Utility Cooperatives, Israel Packel
Michigan Law Review
A group of farmers desire electricity. They propose to form a cooperative, to borrow money and to construct electric distribution lines. They probably will incorporate the cooperative as a stock or non-stock corporation in order to obtain the benefit of limited liability. The cooperative might be formed under a statute specifically enacted to authorize the formation of cooperatives or under a general incorporation statute. Normally, the charter of the cooperative will provide for equality in control by the members or shareholders and for a limited return or no return on capital investment. The cooperative will probably apply to the Federal …
Public Utilities - Judicial Review Of The Rate Base
Public Utilities - Judicial Review Of The Rate Base
Michigan Law Review
The Secretary of Agriculture made an order fixing the rates chargeable by the appellant, the rate base being determined by the cost of reproduction new less depreciation. The district court held that, since by congressional act the findings of fact of the Secretary were made conclusive, the court could not make an independent determination of the value but was bound to take the Secretary's valuation if there was substantial evidence to support it. However, the court then went on to review the evidence before the Secretary and concluded that the appellant had failed to show that the valuation was "clearly …
Public Utilities - Charging Companies With Expense Of Investigation - Constitutionality
Public Utilities - Charging Companies With Expense Of Investigation - Constitutionality
Michigan Law Review
A Washington statute provides that whenever the public service commission shall deem it necessary in the performance of its duties to make any investigation or valuation of a public service company, the public service company shall pay the expenses reasonably attributable thereto. The statute provides that the commission, after giving an opportunity to be heard, "shall render a bill therefor or for such part thereof as it may find necessary and reasonable." In an appeal by certain public service companies from an assessment made by the commission, held, the statute was unconstitutional because of denial of equal protection of …
Public Utilities-Injunction Restraining Enforcement Of Rate Order Of State Commission-Jurisdiction Of Federal Court Under Johnson Act
Michigan Law Review
Plaintiffs sued in a federal district court for an injunction restraining enforcement of an order of the Corporation Commission of Oklahoma reducing gas rates. The plaintiffs alleged that the new rates were confiscatory and in violation of due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment. It appeared that there was much uncertainty in the decisions of the Supreme Court of Oklahoma as to whether the appeal to that court from the orders of the Corporation Commission were legislative or judicial. Held, that in view of the uncertainty of an opportunity for judicial review of the orders of the Commission, …