IURC decision is worth celebrating

There hasn’t been much to celebrate about the coronavirus pandemic.

COVID-19 has led to layoffs, business closings, tremendous educational headaches and wild rides on Wall Street. And that’s all on top of the illness and death the virus has left in its wake.

But here’s some good news, and it is worth celebrating.

It comes from — of all places — the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission, a government entity that seldom delivers good news.

The IURC on Monday announced that it is denying a request by several utility companies — including Indiana Michigan Power and gas companies that serve both the Portland and Dunkirk communities — to raise rates so they could make up revenue lost because of the pandemic.

The rate increase itself was a huge public relations miscue on the part of the utilities. It carried a message of: We’re all in this together, except we want others to bear the pain so our stockholders stay happy.

There’s an echo from Orwell’s “Animal Farm,” as in, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”

On top of that, the IURC decided to extend a moratorium on utility cut-offs until Aug. 14.

No COVID-19 rate hikes. A little more cushion on bill-paying for utility customers.

In a time when good news has been hard to find, it doesn’t get much better than that. — J.R.