Texas Utilities Code 53.003 – Just and Reasonable Rates
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(a) The commission shall ensure that each rate a public utility or two or more public utilities jointly make, demand, or receive is just and reasonable.
(b) A rate may not be unreasonably preferential, prejudicial, or discriminatory but must be sufficient, equitable, and consistent in application to each class of consumer.
Terms Used In Texas Utilities Code 53.003
- Equitable: Pertaining to civil suits in "equity" rather than in "law." In English legal history, the courts of "law" could order the payment of damages and could afford no other remedy. See damages. A separate court of "equity" could order someone to do something or to cease to do something. See, e.g., injunction. In American jurisprudence, the federal courts have both legal and equitable power, but the distinction is still an important one. For example, a trial by jury is normally available in "law" cases but not in "equity" cases. Source: U.S. Courts
- Person: includes corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association, and any other legal entity. See Texas Government Code 311.005
(c) A public utility may not:
(1) grant an unreasonable preference or advantage concerning rates to a person in a classification;
(2) subject a person in a classification to an unreasonable prejudice or disadvantage concerning rates; or
(3) establish or maintain an unreasonable difference concerning rates between localities or between classes of service.
(d) In establishing a public utility’s rates, the commission may treat as a single class two or more municipalities that a public utility serves if the commission considers that treatment to be appropriate.