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Show TELLURIDE ASKS I FOR RE-HEARING; There is ample evidence in the six ! sout hers count it's servetl by the Tel -: luriile Power company that the tie-J l.ressio:i, which was :t its peak last April, is vnn.'shing, it is claimed by the company, which Friday filed with the utilities commission of Utah a motion for a rehearisg of the case in1 which the commission decided that the company should reduce its rates 10 per cent. The motion may be tak- en to indicate that the power company 1 plans to appeal its case to the courts,; unless ,the commission alters its order. or-der. The commission entered an order December 12, reouiring the reduction on the theory ,that in the presestj stressed times the service is not, worth so much to the patrons of the! company as jt was at the time the,1 rates were fixed. The commission! at the sante time recognized that the rates it ordered would not give a 'fair return" to the company on its investment used in public service,' but contended that under economic conditions such as it found to prevail in the several southern Utah counties served by the Telluride, the best interests in-terests of the public and the company lequired that it forego for a time a reasonable return. j The company attacks the constitu-i tionality of any such decision, which! it contends violates both federal and state basic laws, and amounts to tak-i ins: property without due process of j law. ; The standard set up by the commission, com-mission, the motion contends, is not. a lawful measure of the company's i obligation to the public, "nor does it, afford a basis for compelling defend-:' ant to reduce its charges to a level which admittedly will yield it less than a fair and reasonable return on the fair value of its property required, and used in supplying such service."! The company goes further, how-j ever, and contends that the commis-j sion's finding is 'wholly unsupported by any competent evidence, and is: untrue in point of fact.' "The evidence is undisputed," says j the company, "that the customers' value its service next to absolute ne-l cessities of life." i If the commission bases its order) on a finding that the customers are j unable to pay the present rates, that . finding also is declared to be con-! trary to fact, and it is contended that (Continued on last page) TELLURIDE ASKS FOR RE-HEARING (Continued from first page) it has not been shown that all or even a majority of the customers are unable to pay the present rates. Compliance with the commission's order, it is contended, would bankrupt bank-rupt the company and destroy its ability to render adequate and proper sendee to its customers and "the inevitable effect of the same will be to reduce defendant's revenues to a point where it cannot meet both its reasonable and necessary operating expenses, pay its taxes, and provide for maintennce and depreciation as required of it by the Federal Power commission and by the Public I'titi-ties I'titi-ties commission of Utah, and like-, wise meet the interest charges on its funded debt which must and will necessarily yesult in the absolute ruin of defendant, the loss of its property,, and the destruction of its ability to continue to render adequate and proper pro-per service to its customers. In like manner such reduction in, its revenues, will absolutely prevent the defendant! from securing needed new funds for the extension of its facilities to communities com-munities and individuals adjacent to its lines which are not now supplied, witli electric service and who cannot now be supplied with such service in any other way than by the extension of defendant's facilities." The Tel-hiride Tel-hiride company, it is added, "has met fully the electric service requirements in this territory; it has invested prudently and given its patrons the benefit of efficient and economical operation; it has made additional heavy expenditures within the past few years to meet the growing electric elec-tric needs of its patrons; in a spirit of civic cooperation during this general depression, it has recently made voluntary rate reductions that it could ill afford; it has exceeded the wise limit in extending credit to needy customers during this depression; depres-sion; its net earnings have practically practi-cally vanished; its earnings have always al-ways fallen far short of a reasonable return and for the past two years its common stockholders who paid for more than one-half of this property have not received one cent in earnings; earn-ings; the public has profited far more from the company's investment than have its owners; a vital public service such as this in question cannot can-not long be furnished when operations opera-tions are at a loss; and in the interest inter-est of the public welfare this company com-pany must be allowed to continue its public service." "The commission," it is argued, "has failed to take into account the very marked change for the better that has taken p'ace in the territory served since the date of the hearing herein," which was in April. If'"". Price increases as high as 200 per rent for commodities produced in the territory, better crops for lf'33 than for '.''V1, and resultant increased purchasing pur-chasing power of the public in the counties serve i are claimed. A rehearing re-hearing is a-ked in order that thc-e facts may be presented to the commission. com-mission. "Notwithstanding the predictions made by certain witnesses at the original hearing, the company proposes pro-poses to show that instead the company com-pany has gained customers, that its ! collections have improved and a number num-ber of municipal customers have restored re-stored and added to their street lighting, light-ing, and "in general there is every ' indication both in defendant's busi- ! ness and otherwise that there has al- 1 ready been a sufficient economic recovery re-covery in tbe territory served by the ! defendant fully to enable its customers custom-ers to pay at least the present rates voluntarily established by defendant ! for the public service supplied it." When the commission finds that the section served is in the pioneering stage and that its major industries are at this time so unsound as to be on the point of general abandonment, ' the company contends: "This sweeping decision, based upon such an unwarranted assumn- ! tion, is of necessity ruinous in that it folSows the path of despair rather than the highway of courage and hope." It is declared that the order of the commission affects 2-5,000 people and "would effect a sa"ings of less than .?1 per capita per year. "Is it in the public interest," it is a-ked, "to wreck the electric service of six counties for this slight present relief? Would the people concerned knowingly allow their birthright to be traded for a mess of pottage?" |