The current rate is 41 cents per kwh.
Attorney General Matthew Gregory said under Public Law 16-2, which suspends P.L. 15-94, PUC must come up with new residential power rates before the suspension period expires.
P.L. 15-94 requires CUC to fix, until the end of this year, its residential electric rates at 17 cents per kwh for the first 1,000 kwh and 22 cents for anything in excess.
“If PUC does not issue a rate order by Dec. 31, 2008, the rates will revert to a level substantially below cost of, 17 cents/kwh. The commission believes that presently the CUC’s cost of oil alone is about 35 cents/kwh,” Gregory said in a 12-page legal opinion addressed to PUC Vice Chairman Kyle Calebreze.
PUC asked for the AG’s legal advice because it wanted to hire the services of a Guam-licensed attorney to act as the body’s “administrative law judge” or ALJ.
The ALJ will preside and act as judge over administrative cases that will be brought before PUC involving rate disputes.
PUC is the regulatory agency tasked to oversee all utility and telecommunication firms in the CNMI.
PUC’s candidate for the job, however, is not licensed to practice in the CNMI.
Gregory said the person cannot be hired “because you would be promoting the unauthorized practice of law.”
He noted, however, that PUC can take two alternative legal routes to hire the Guam-based lawyer.
“First, it can petition the Supreme Court to permit him to serve pro hac vice. Second, it can ask the Legislature to change the statutory provisions applicable to the ALJ’s function,” the AG said.
According to the AG, the CNMI Supreme Court requires that an attorney must pass the CNMI bar exam to practice here but there are three exceptions — a grandfather clause that allows government lawyers to work for the commonwealth without taking the CNMI bar examination for four years provided that they have been admitted to practice in another U.S. jurisdiction; appear as pro hac vice; or be a salaried government employee.
Gregory said the pro hac vice option is quite expensive.
“Pro hac vice” is a Latin term that means “for this one particular occasion.” It usually refers to an out-of-state lawyer who has been granted special permission to participate in a particular case, even though the lawyer is not licensed to practice in the state or jurisdiction where the case is being tried.
“Pro hac vice admission of an attorney licensed elsewhere is not a convenient one for the commission. The cost, $5,000 per case, is excessive, the permission is good for 12 months only, the person may not maintain an office in the CNMI, must associate with a local attorney, and may not appear in more than one case at a time,” the AG said.
He said the four-year exception is convenient for PUC. The problem is that the commission’s candidate wants to be a consultant and not a full-time employee of the CNMI government.
The AG said the commission may wish to consider hiring someone from the CNMI to act as the ALJ or seek a three-month extension before it acts on the new power rate deadline.
“The commission may wish to address a longer term solution by advertising in the utility industry media for an ALJ it could hire. The commission could secure more time for its hiring if it convinced the Legislature to provide a three-month extension of the Dec. 31, 2008 rate order deadline,” Gregory said.
