Dive Brief:

• North Carolina regulators earlier this month issued a decision saying utilities may continue to recover the corporate tax rate of 6.9%—passing the cost to customers—despite the state cutting that rate to 5%.
• The 4-3 decision has created a contentious debate at the North Carolina Utilities Commission, and the state's Democratic attorney general has signaled he may appeal the ruling to the N.C. Court of Appeals.
• The actual impact on customer bills would be small, and the overall figure in question is about $21 million annually across four utilities. Democratic commission members say it is an unfair corporate windfall.

Dive Insight:

The Oct. 9 decision essentially found that the North Carolina Utilities Commission does not have the authority to adjust corporate tax recovery for utilities. But the vote fell along party lines, driven by several Republican commissioners sent to the commission by Governor Pat McCrory, and drew a sharp response from Democratic members.

The dissenters charged that the majority was permitting the state's utilities to over-collect approximately $21 million dollars per year from ratepayers "based on a no longer applicable higher tax rate. There is no set end to this  over-collection, which will continue indefinitely each year until each utility’s next general  rate case."

 NC Attorney General Roy Cooper, a Democrat considering a run for the state's governorship, may appeal the ruling.

The decision, according to the dissent, would increase ratepayers’ total electric bill by approximately 1% and increase an average ratepayer’s natural gas bill by approximately 3-4%