Yesterday the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC) issued an order in 3 combined rate cases that refuses to return to ratepayers more than a small fraction of the money they have paid Portland General Electric Co. (PGE) to enable the company to earn huge profits on the Trojan nuclear power plant for more than a decade after it permanently closed in 1992. Such profits are banned by ORS 757.355, enacted by voters as Measure 9 of 1978. This ban was reaffirmed by voters in 2000, who by referendum rejected the Legislature’s attempt to repeal this statute by a vote of over 88% on Measure 90. The cases were back before the OPUC because of numerous successful appeals of OPUC rate orders since 1995 to the courts by the Utility Reform Project and Class Action Plaintiffs.

"The $33.1 million refund ordered by the Commission is only a small fraction of what ratepayers are owed by PGE for its unlawful charges for Trojan profits after the plant broke down and permanently ceased to function," said Dan Meek, co-counsel for the ratepayer-plaintiffs in numerous cases involving the Trojan profits.

"The Commission's order is based on legal theories that were never presented or advocated by any party in the proceeding, including PGE, and are contrary to Oregon statutes," added ratepayer-plaintiffs' co-counsel Linda Williams. "The Order consumes many pages stating the Commission's disagreement on legal issues with the Oregon Supreme Court, which has acknowledged ratepayers' rights to class action remedies. The Commission appears not to understand that rulings of the Oregon Supreme Court are binding on the Commission."

Attorneys for the ratepayer-plaintiffs said they fully expect to appeal this decision to the courts, where they have succeeded in overturning the Commission's earlier decisions involving the Trojan profits. Those decisions were issued in 1995 and 2002.

The Commission's press release misstates the history of the cases in several ways. It fails to note that the Commission expressly allowed PGE to charge ratepayers over $33 million per year in profit on Trojan during a 5.5-year period starting in 1995, more than 2 years after the plant permanently closed. The press release incorrectly characterizes a "settlement" among only some of the parties to the case in 2000 as "entirely removing the Trojan investment from rates," which the Commission's approval of the rump settlement most certainly did not do.