At Tuesday night's council meeting, the Casper City Council decided to intervene in the discussion between Rocky Mountain Power and the Public Service Commission. Rocky Mountain Power has a proposed rate increase of around 17 percent pending with the commission.

Council decides to intervene:

"Council said tonight that we will intervene so the City Attorney's Office and others will be involved with discussions with Rocky Mountain Power as well as the Public Service Commission and asking for information as well as presenting information."

City Manager Tom Forslund said the city has intervened before and the process is going to take months.

Steps of intervening process:

"They file a rate increase proposal to the Public Service Commission and then the Public Service Commission holds hearings and then interveners as well as the general public then can come in and present evidence and ask questions and such. And then Rocky Mountain answers it and then ultimately the Public Service Commission determines what kind of rate increase they will allow."

And, Forslund reiterated that the Public Service Commission hasn't yet officially considered Rocky Mountain's proposal for a rate increase. The council just authorized the City Attorney's Office to file a petition to intervene.

The point of the city intervening, says Forslund, is to see how much money from the proposed rate increase is going to be directed into local improvements to the utility infrastructure.

Why the city will intervene:

"The question is are they going to be upgrading it in Natrona County, or is that money going to be used other places and we would like to know exactly what their investment plans are for our community over the next few years."

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