THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 2, 1995 TAG: 9502020376
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAVE MAYFIELD, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
Dominion Resources Inc. and its Virginia Power subsidiary on Wednesday proposed to refund to its customers more than $8 million in alleged overcharges related to a railroad coal-hauling contract.
In addition, the two Richmond-based companies said that they are willing to initiate talks with CSX Corp. to try to lower the rates the railroad charges Virginia Power for hauling coal to its power plants.
The proposals were in response to a State Corporation Commission staff report late last month that sharply criticized a 1991 renegotiation of the 12-year coal-hauling pact between Virginia Power and Richmond-based CSX.
The SCC staff report said that under pressure from Dominion Resources Chairman Thomas E. Capps, Virginia Power cut a deal that increased Virginia Power's costs - and its customers' rates. CSX Chairman John W. Snow is a member of Dominion Resources' board.
The coal-hauling contract renegotiation became a major issue in a bitter battle last year between the boards of Dominion Resources and Virginia Power. The electric-utility subsidiary cited Capps' intervention in the contract as an example of higher-ups at Dominion Resources overstepping bounds proscribed under state utility law.
The companies settled their differences last August, but the SCC continued investigations of the Dominion Resources-Virginia Power relationship and the Virginia Power-CSX contract.
The SCC staff report last month said that Virginia Power customers were overcharged by $8.3 million through April 1994 because of the CSX deal. It said millions more in overcharges stand to pile up through 2000, the last year of the contract.
The renegotiation of the contract, the report said, violated a state law requiring utilities to make ``every reasonable effort to minimize fuel costs.''
In response Wednesday, Dominion Resources and Virginia Power said they wanted to ``move toward a resolution of the issue.''
They proposed refunding the alleged overcharges and beginning talks with CSX to try to lower coal-transport charges.
Their proposals, the companies said in the filing, do not indicate ``an admission of any imprudence, fault or liability of any kind by the companies or any of their offers or directors'' in connection with the CSX contract.
In a November filing with the SCC, three months after settling their boardroom brawl, the two companies characterized the contract renegotiation as ``reasonable and prudent.'' by CNB