Mississippi levels fraud charge at Entergy, argues it have bought cheaper power
JACKSON, Miss. — The state of Mississippi opened a trial Monday arguing that the state’s largest private utility defrauded customers by not buying cheaper power from other generators and demanding Entergy Mississippi should be forced to repay up to $2 billion to its customers.
"We're not here to make a profit," lawyer Vince Kilborn said on behalf of Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. "We're here to recover, dollar-for-dollar, the overcharges these people paid, plus interest."
But lawyers for the unit of New Orleans-based Entergy Corp argued before U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves that there's little evidence that customers suffered any harm, noting rates were mostly lower than the national average during the 1998 to 2013 period at question in the suit. Entergy argues it bought plenty of power from outside generators, but said it needed to run some of its own older power plants sometime to keep electricity demand and supply in balance, even if that power was more expensive.
"Using our legacy system was a way to keep the lights on for all of our customers, including in Mississippi," Kathleen Sullivan argued for Entergy.
Read more: https://www.nola.com/news/2019/04/mississippi-levels-fraud-charge-at-entergy-argues-it-have-bought-cheaper-power.html