Robbing Peter ...

Those in Mississippi and Louisiana: Please forgive us.

Those in other Southern states: Please indulge us.

But this editorial from The Leader explains why Arkansas electricity consumers feel like they are getting a raw deal -- again.

From a regional perspective, it is worth noting that electricity generation remains a significant concern 70 years after TVA.

Monday, for the second time in 20 years, the regulators at FERC said Arkansas electrical customers of Entergy Corp. should subsidize those in other states. Starting in 2007, customers of Entergy Arkansas will send some $200 million a year to the Entergy subsidiary in Louisiana so that it can lower the light bills of its customers. It has nothing to do with Katrina. Louisiana filed this case years ago.

Arkansas ratepayers already have paid some $3 billion to Louisiana and Mississippi over the past 20 years so that electrical bills in those states will not be so high.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission held that the expense of generating electricity in the states served by the big Entergy holding company should be more or less equalized.

Since Arkansas generates nearly all of its electricity at nuclear and coal-fired plants, which now produce power much less expensively than do gas-burning plants, we are supposed to help Louisiana. Louisiana generates some electricity from nuclear units, but most of its electricity comes from natural gas, the cost of which has risen sharply since 2000.

There is no earthly justification for requiring energy customers in one state to subsidize those in a slightly richer state except for a private agreement among the operating businesses of a holding company. Equalization has not always been a federal policy. It was not when Arkansans were paying much higher costs than neighboring states.