Title
Memorializing City Council's opposition to the Petition of the Philadelphia Gas Works ("PGW") to the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ("PUC") to establish a cash receipts reconciliation clause ("CRRC") and further authorizing the President to transmit copies of this Resolution to the PUC.
Body
WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Gas Works ("PGW") has filed a petition with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission ("PUC") to establish a cash receipts reconciliation clause ("CRRC") to reconcile PGW's projected and actual cash receipts with billed revenues on an ongoing basis; and
WHEREAS, The establishment of a CRRC would create a non-bypassable charge to all firm transportation or sales customers as part of the distribution rate, which charge would not be separately stated on the customer's bill; and
WHEREAS, The effect of the proposed CRRC would be to pass the cost of uncollected revenues on to PGW's paying customers, thereby removing appropriate incentives for PGW to pursue reasonable and thorough efforts to collect its bills from customers with the ability to pay those bills; and
WHEREAS, Another effect of the proposed CRRC would be to generate funds not otherwise available from PGW's operations to enable PGW to make the annual $18 million payment to the City of Philadelphia required by Section VII.1.b.i. of the Agreement between the City of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Facilities Management Agreement for the Management and Operation of the Philadelphia Gas Works, provision for which is already made in PGW's approved base rates; and
WHEREAS, PGW's rates are already the highest in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the annual bill for a typical PGW residential heating customer is already projected to exceed $1,450 for the 2003-2004 fiscal year; and
WHEREAS, The effect of the proposed CRRC would be to increase the typical residential heating customer's annual bill by approximately $80 in the 2004-2005 fiscal year; and
WHER...
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