By Amanda Durish Cook

Entergy Mississippi has scored a major victory in an 11-year-old rate battle brought by the state’s former attorney general, who claimed the utility overcharged its customers.

Mississippi Chancery Court Judge Dewayne Thomas last month issued a ruling dismissing the case, deciding the court lacked the jurisdiction and expertise to hear the matter (25CH1:08-cv-02086).

Former Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood filed the lawsuit in 2008, alleging that hundreds of thousands of Entergy customers paid too much because the company ran its own inefficient, older generation instead of purchasing less expensive wholesale power. Hood argued that Entergy owed up to $2 billion in damages from 1998 to 2013 as a result of its self-dealing.

Entergy Mississippi CEO Haley Fisackerly countered that the utility acted in the best interest of its customers. The company has argued that it did purchase power from third parties but also needed to run its own generation for the sake of reliability.

“Entergy Mississippi has some of the lowest rates in the country. We’re proud of our reputation for integrity in our business practices, which decades of clean audits prove,” Fisackerly said Thursday in a statement.

He also expressed satisfaction that the court agreed it wasn’t equipped to make a decision on utility rates.

“We have consistently maintained that a courtroom is not the proper forum to address issues about utility rates paid by customers and are grateful the Chancery Court carefully considered the issue and ruled in our favor,” Fisackerly said. He also pointed out that the company is subject to oversight from FERC and the Mississippi Public Service Commission. Those two agencies are “tasked with ensuring we treat our customers fairly,” Fisackerly said. Entergy has long argued that the complaint should be heard before FERC or the PSC if it were to proceed at all.

Current Attorney General Lynn Fitch, who took office a day after the ruling, has until Jan. 29 to appeal the court’s decision. Fitch did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit’s lengthy history ended where it began — in county court, though the case mostly played out in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. A four-day trial in April ensued before the district court remanded the case to the Chancery Court for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

In his decision, Thomas cited FERC’s exclusive jurisdiction in filed rates and the Entergy System Agreement (ESA), which steered the Entergy operating companies from 1982 until 2013. Interpretation of the ESA has long been a source of disagreement in FERC proceedings. (See La. PSC Complaints Denied in Entergy System Disputes.)

“Because resolving the dispute in this matter involves the consideration and interpretation of the ESA, a FERC-approved tariff, this court must conclude that the matter falls within FERC’s exclusive jurisdiction,” Thomas wrote.

Hood early in 2019 called Entergy a “poor corporate citizen.” His out-of-state counsel also brought a similar $1 billion suit against Entergy Texas, which was also dismissed in 2015 on the basis of federal regulatory pre-emption by a Texas appeals court. Hood, a Democrat, was defeated in November’s gubernatorial election.