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PUC Denies Waiver Of Specific Newspaper Notice Requirement Sought By Retail Energy Broker
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The Pennsylvania PUC denied the request of Bakey Enterprises LLC d/b/a Bakey Energy Consulting for a waiver of a requirement for Bakey to publish notice, of Bakey's sought expansion of its natural gas broker license, in one of the specific newspapers in which applicants must publish public notice
Bakey was previously licensed to serve natural gas customers at PECO and Philadelphia Gas Works
Bakey sought expanded authority to serve customers in all natural gas service areas, including, as relevant here, UGI
PUC rules require that notice of a supplier or broker application shall be published, "in newspapers of general circulation covering each county in which the applicant intends to provide service as required".
The rules do not specify the specific newspapers in which a notice must be placed for each service area. Rather, the specific newspapers which must be used is provided in the broker application, with the PUC's rules requiring that applicants comply with the application requirements set by the PUC
The public notices are required to list the customer classes and areas that the applicant intends to serve
Bakey previously undertook such newspaper notice publication for its initial license application with a notice in the Philadelphia Inquirer, with such prior notice being specific to Bakey's then-intended service areas (including PECO and PGW and certain electric service areas), and which did not list UGI
Notice in the Philadelphia Daily News or the Philadelphia Inquirer is required for applicants seeking to serve gas customers at PECO, Philadelphia Gas Works, and UGI
Bakey published notices in six newspapers related to its sought expansion to various service areas, but sought a waiver of the requirement to publish notice again in either the Philadelphia Daily News or the Philadelphia Inquirer
As summarized by the PUC, Bakey had said of its prior notice in the Philadelphia Inquirer as follows: "Bakey Energy Consulting stated that no protests were filed challenging the applicant’s technical or financial fitness at that time. Bakey Energy Consulting also stated that the purpose of the Commission’s publication requirements is to provide notice to affected parties and the public within the relevant service territory. As such, requiring another publication in the same newspaper does not further the underlying regulatory objective of providing meaningful notice to affected parties since stakeholders already had an opportunity to protest its application but did not."
Bakey also argued that the circulation area of the Philadelphia Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer do not overlap with UGI's service area. As noted above, the use of such specific papers for notice at UGI is set forth in the PUC's broker application process, and not rule
Bakey had said, "Petitioner is a small business and sole proprietor with over 40 years of energy industry
experience and holds professional engineering licenses in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and
Delaware ... Imposing additional publication costs that do not advance notice objectives would be
disproportionate and unnecessary."
Bakey had said that publishing a new notice in both the Philadelphia Inquirer and
Philadelphia Daily News would cost an additional $2,900, with Bakey stating that, including its prior applications (both electric and gas), its total publishing cost for all of the notices would be about $10,000 if required to undertake the new Philadelphia Inquirer "and"
Philadelphia Daily News published notices
The PUC, however, said that the prior notice in the Philadelphia Inquirer did not list UGI as an area for which Bakey was notifying the public of Bakey's intent to serve customers
As such, the PUC said, "We disagree with Bakey Energy Consulting’s assertion that its previous publications provided proper notice to affected parties in the UGI service territory. In their previous Philadelphia Inquirer publication, Bakey Energy Consulting did not list the UGI gas service territory in its publication. Since the UGI gas service territory was not listed in Bakey Energy Consulting’s original NGS license publication as a territory it planned to serve, stakeholders of the UGI gas service territory did not have an opportunity to file protests to the application."
The PUC said, "We are not persuaded by Bakey Energy Consulting’s assertion that a lack of protests following its previous publication in the Philadelphia Inquirer as a reason to waive the requirement to provide proper notice to stakeholders in UGI Utilities, Inc. – Gas Division’s service territory, therefore, the Petition of Bakey Energy Consulting for Waiver of Publication Requirement is denied."
The PUC's order only addressed Bakey's requested waiver, and did not address the substance of Bakey's application seeking expanded authority
A-2026-3059622
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June 5, 2026
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Copyright 2026 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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