State seeks dismissal of Nevada Power suit

Tuesday, April 30, 2002 | 9:11 a.m.

The state Bureau of Consumer Protection is seeking dismissal of a Nevada Power Co. lawsuit that challenges a ruling made by state regulators in the rate case involving energy used last year.

In a motion filed Monday, the state bureau asked Carson City District Court to dismiss Nevada Power's lawsuit against the state Public Utilities Commission. The PUC on March 29 granted Nevada Power only $485 million of the $922 million it is seeking from ratepayers for energy used from March 2001 through September.

The utility wants the court to approve the full $922 million request, arguing that all of its energy purchases were prudent. The PUC wants the lawsuit dismissed because Nevada Power failed to ask the commission for reconsideration and therefore failed to exhaust its administrative remedies.

The consumer protection bureau, a branch of the Nevada attorney general's office, agreed with the PUC that the court lacked jurisdiction based on Nevada Power's "failure to exhaust its administrative remedies and because any consideration of this matter by the District Court would comprise a restraint, in advance, of the commission's exercise of its legislative power to regulate utilities."

The state bureau already filed a motion for reconsideration with the PUC and is seeking denial of the entire $922 million request based on arguments that Nevada Power used poor business judgment in the way it bought power since 1999.