No. 45 W.D. Appeal Docket, 1982 & No. 5 W.D. Appeal Docket, 1983, Consolidated appeals from the Order of the Commonwealth Court dismissing Appellant's Petition for Review at No. 3159 C.D. 1981 and quashing Appellant's Petition for Review at No 257 C.D. 1982.
Leonard J. Marsico, Stephen A. George, Buchanan, Ingersoll, Rodewald, Kyle & Buerger, P.C., Pittsburgh, for appellant.
Charles F. Hoffman, Chief Counsel, Daniel P. Delaney, Deputy Chief Counsel, James P. Melia, Asst. Counsel, Harrisburg, for appellees.
Drew J. Kovalak, Greensburg, for intervenor.
Roberts, C.j., and Nix, Larsen, Flaherty, McDermott, Hutchinson and Zappala, JJ. Larsen, J., files a dissenting opinion in which McDermott, J., joins.
This is an appeal from an order of the Commonwealth Court*fn1 which upheld the constitutionality of a public-utility rate-setting procedure employed by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC), appellee, in reviewing an increase in electric rates sought by West Penn Power Company (West Penn), appellee. The appellant, Allegheny Ludlum Steel Corporation (Allegheny Ludlum), a large industrial customer of West Penn, challenges, on procedural due process grounds, the statutory and regulatory framework under which the PUC approved an increase in West Penn's rates.
On November 20, 1981, West Penn applied to the PUC for an increase in its 1982 electric rates pursuant to Section 1307 of the Public Utility Code.*fn2 Section 1307(c) provides for
automatic adjustment of rates, in a manner prescribed by the PUC, to reflect fuel cost increases. Accordingly, the
PUC has adopted the Energy Cost Rate (ECR)*fn3 formula to govern automatic adjustment of ...