Having already been rebuffed once, three major Nevada casino operators await a review of a prior ruling requiring them to pay nearly 7 million in fees to stop buying power from NV Energy.
The Nevada Public Utilities Commission in November ordered MGM Resorts International to pay $86.9 million, Las Vegas Sands $23.9 million, and Wynn Resorts $15.7 million to stop using the state’s largest utility, Nevada Power, which does business as NV Energy, and buy power from other providers.
The utility says the fees are necessary to offset built-in costs for improvements made to provide power to the casinos as well as NV Energy’s residential consumers, who comprise a majority of its customers.
If the casinos leave, NV Energy says it will have to raise its residential rates.
The casinos counter that NV Energy is engaged in profiteering for its ultimate owner, billionaire Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway. The casinos say NV Energy is gouging them and residential customers by forcing them to pay more than necessary for energy and transferring the profits out of Nevada and to Berkshire Hathaway.
The casinos appealed the Public Utility Commission’s ruling on fees and await a final answer, but the commission isn’t likely to budge. Its staff says the fees are justified, but the commission might have to clarify some positions in its earlier ruling, such as how the casinos can go about buying alternative forms of energy.
