| (D) the date the application will be deemed approved if no
objection is filed with the commission.
(3) Approval of an application for determination
of cost-effectiveness. An application shall be deemed approved without further
commission action if no objection to the application is filed with the commission
within 60 days after the application was filed and adequate notice has been
completed.
(4) Decision. If an application for approval of an emissions
reduction plan is not approved under paragraph (3) of this subsection, the
commission shall render a decision approving or denying the application within
180 days from the date of filing of a complete application unless good cause
is shown for extending the 180-day period.
(f) Reconciliation of environmental cleanup costs during the
true-up proceedings. The commission's final determination of recoverable environmental
cleanup costs under PURA §39.263 shall be made during the true-up proceedings
under PURA §39.262, subject to the provisions of this paragraph:
(1) Burden of proof for recovery of costs.
(A) Burden of proof. In determining the amount of environmental
cleanup costs that the electric utility may recover as invested capital under
PURA §39.263, the electric utility or affiliated power generation company
has the burden of showing that its qualifying costs during the period were
prudent, reasonable, and necessary and were incurred to implement the most
cost-effective alternative.
(B) Benchmarks. For those electric generating facilities where
their owners can show that retrofitting the facilities is more cost effective
than retiring them, the commission presumes that costs for retrofitting a
natural gas-fired electric generating facility that are no more than $7.00
per kilowatt for nitrogen oxide combustion control technology and $25 per
kilowatt for technology that reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by 80% or more
are reasonable and prudent. Likewise, the commission presumes that costs for
retrofitting a coal-fired electric generating facility that are no more than
$10 per kilowatt for nitrogen oxide combustion control technology and $50
per kilowatt for technology that reduces nitrogen oxide emissions by 80% or
more are reasonable and prudent. For actual costs that exceed these per-kilowatt
benchmarks, the utility must establish that those costs were reasonably incurred.
Costs that the utility estimates and the commission affirms as the estimated
costs of each plant's environmental retrofit, as determined in a proceeding
under subsection (e) of this section, shall be aggregated as the maximum reasonable
and prudent investment for the fleet retrofit, and the costs in excess of
the fleet total are not recoverable through stranded costs.
(2) Scope. Any issue related to determining the prudence
and reasonableness of the environmental clean-up costs which the electric
utility or affiliated power generation company is seeking recovery as invested
capital shall be within the scope of the proceeding. The prudence and reasonableness
of the alternative selected for each electric generating facility is not within
the scope of this proceeding.
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