Burdensome and Unnecessary Reporting Requirements of the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act Need to be Changed

摘要

The Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 establishes ratemaking and regulatory standards for electric utilities. The Act requires the Department of Energy to annually report to the Congress on State and utility actions. The Act also requires utilities to file cost-of-service data biennially with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The Department of Energy is unclear on the specific contents of the annual reports after the third one, due in 1982, and similar data is available from other sources. Further, the cost-of-service data requirements are burdensome and costly to utilities, and of little current use to States and intervenors. GAO, therefore, recommends that the Congress repeal the annual reporting requirement effective after the third annual report, and that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission review and revise its cost-of-service reporting regulations to reduce the burden on utilities. If this review finds the reporting costs to be greater than the reporting benefits, the Commission should ask the Congress to repeal the cost-of-service reporting requirement.