JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The Missouri Public Service Commission’s schedule is picking back up, though the docket of their weekly agenda meeting may have appeared rather sparse.
Only one tariff or new order filled this week’s meeting, though three items were listed for case discussion. Rather, the PSC’s time and efforts have been put into a number of scheduled hearings over the course of the next coming weeks.
Wednesday’s meeting took little more than 15 minutes to roll through the agenda, with the majority of that being focused on the case discussions surrounding the amending of rules.
The only order of the day concerned World Fuel Services, Inc.’s application for certification as a seller of energy services in Missouri. Chairman Daniel Hall said that, to his knowledge, this was the first time he had ever seen this issue raised during his time with the PSC.
Under 393.299, RSMo, persons (except distributors or a political subdivision itself) who provide energy services in any county, municipality, or village in Missouri are required to apply to the Commission for certification as an energy seller.
But, as the PSC ruled, World Fuel Services does not need to be certified as a seller of energy services because it intends to provide energy services as “upstream” natural gas transactions, where the title to the natural gas transfers outside of the Local Gas Distribution Companies’ city gate. In essence, that city gate would be the point from which the energy goes from transmission to distribution.
Staff concluded that as such, World Fuel does not need to be certified as an energy seller under the statute, and the commission dismissed the application with a 5-0 vote.
As for the case discussions, all that took place on the first two was to discuss the fact that the public hearings on the reviewing and amending of rules in two cases were scheduled.
At 10 a.m. Thursday morning, the PSC hearing will center on the rescission of a rule considered to be obsolete, which staff expects no comments on. The other hearing, scheduled for 2 p.m., concerns the amending of the statute to implement the new nationwide electric safety code.
The final item in case discussion once again centered on the manufactured housing rules, with staff looking to clear up some issues in the case. One change they sought was to insert a provision that would still give the PSC oversight by requiring managers to notify the commission of fee implementation comes into play, so that they may know what is or isn’t being assessed.
“This is important and this is consistent with the audit, that the commission maintains some control over when these fees are set, when these fines are assessed,” Hall said. He said he hopes there would be something in the lines of quarterly reports to be presented before the PSC to address that need.
Another part highlighted some provisions that staff thought should be rescinded, though they actually thought the entire chapter should be withdrawn and instead begin a new rulemaking case to address that entire issue.
All in all, the judge handling the cases said she expects 48 orders of rulemaking to be placed before the commission as soon as next week, which the commission would then approve to be sent to the Governor’s Office before making its way to JCAR.
Benjamin Peters was a reporter for The Missouri Times and Missouri Times Magazine and also produced the #MoLeg Podcast. He joined The Missouri Times in 2016 after working as a sports editor and TV news producer in mid-Missouri. Benjamin is a graduate of Missouri State University in Springfield.
