Proposed Settlement In Variable Electric Rate Case Announced
By Tony Romeo
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Pennsylvania Attorney General's office has announced the first proposed settlement in several legal actions filed on behalf of consumers with variable rate plans who had massive electric bills during the bitter winter a year ago.
The attorney general's office says under the terms of a proposed settlement, Energy Services Providers, doing business as Pennsylvania Gas and Electric, will have to pay customers $2.3-million on top of $4.5-million already paid out through mediation on a case-by-case basis.
Basil Merenda, director of the Attorney General's Office Bureau of Consumer Protection, says the company is accused of deceptively marketing variable rate plans to electric customers:
"In a lot of these cases, the consumer was under the misunderstanding that the variable rate would not fluctuate, and would not increase."
The settlement still needs the approval of administrative law judges and the Public Utility Commission.
Merenda says four cases against other companies are in various stages of litigation.