(Algae Bloom in Lake Sinclair. Image by NASA)
In State ex rel. Util. Comm'n v. Stein, ___ S.E.2d ___, Nos. 271A18 & 401A18, 2020 WL 7294770 (N.C. December 11, 2020), a somewhat fractured North Carolina Supreme Court faced a filed-rate decision from a North Carolina State administrative agency, the Utilities Commission. The utilities' rate filing involved unlined storage pits of coal ash.
In particular, the decision of the North Carolina agency concerned passing on the costs of "engineering and regulatory compliance," i.e., cleanup.
The ultimate decision was largely to affirm the decisions of the North Carolina Utilities Commission. Putting the merits of the administrative and judicial decisions to one side, it is the several opinions of the majority, and of the justices who dissented in part and concurred in part, that draw attention. These judicial opinions illustrate the working of the filed rate process in State administrative agencies and in State Courts, a procedure which is always tied to the evidence in the record.
This stands in some contrast to the acceptance without the requirement of any evidence to support the distinct but dependent federal "filed rate doctrine" in many federal courts.
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