JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Entergy Corp. has acknowledged in a letter that it sold power to Mississippi under a fuel contract that once led to $72 million in refunds to Louisiana customers.
The letter is the latest development in the legal fight between Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and Entergy. Hood says Mississippi customers should also be entitled to refunds, though the company says it’s not yet sure that’s true.
Hood has filed a lawsuit claiming Entergy and its subsidiaries illegally manipulated the purchase and sale of electricity to maximize profits. The company has denied wrongdoing.
The fraud and antitrust lawsuit filed last month accuses Entergy of buying electricity from sister companies at a higher rate than on the open market, then passing the inflated costs along to customers.
Entergy’s admission Thursday was a reversal for the New Orleans-based utility, which had told the Mississippi Public Service Commission that the contract with Louisiana prevented power from being sold to Entergy Mississippi.
The company said the cost of buying power under the contract may have affected the rate Mississippi customers paid.
Entergy provides electricity to 2.7 million customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The company has annual revenues of more than $11 billion.
Entergy lawyer Henderson S. Hall Jr. said in the letter that Entergy Mississippi and Entergy Services are reviewing the contract.
Hood said Thursday that Entergy’s letter is an admission that it has been overcharging Mississippi rate payers and engaged in a scheme it used in Louisiana. Entergy Louisiana was ordered to refund $72 million to customers in 2000 as a result of one lawsuit and $34 million in 2008 after a different lawsuit.
Hood said Entergy had previously claimed overcharging in Louisiana didn’t affect Mississippi.
“Now in this written letter that you have here, the lawyers are admitting that that was incorrect,” he said.
Entergy spokeswoman Mara Hartmann said the contract in question was re-negotiated at a lower cost after the 2000 lawsuit and the company had mistakenly said no power from Louisiana was sold to Entergy Mississippi, when in fact, it was sold to the state after January 2005.
Hartmann said that even if it was the same power sold to Louisiana, the price was different, so it may not have an impact.
Hood could not say how the contract has affected Mississippi and said he needs internal documents he’s been seeking for months.
Entergy has previously said its practices were sound and Hood’s allegations of wrongdoing were without merit. Entergy also has maintained its practices are fair and that the Mississippi Public Service Commission is the proper overseeing body, not Hood’s office.
The commission in October ordered Entergy to turn over documents in the two Louisiana court cases. The company complied and Hood said those documents showed Entergy’s parent company sold Entergy Mississippi electricity at $26 per 1,000 kilowatt hours that it bought on the open market for $12 per 1,000 kilowatt hours.
Entergy has called all of Hood’s claims “irresponsible, without merit, a waste of taxpayer money and harmful to the state’s business reputation.”
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