More than 1 million Entergy customers in Louisiana will see their utility bills drop this month after the debts from repairing and restoring service after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have been paid.

According to the company, residential customers will see monthly charges drop in the range of $2.57 to $4.35, based on an average usage of 1,000 kilowatt-hours.

Louisiana's utility regulators praised the announcement.

You may recall that after the storms, Louisiana officials created a quasi-state government agency for Entergy so they could borrow $1 billion to pay for utility restoration.

Bonds were sold to get upfront cash and that bond debt was then paid off through surcharges on customers' bills. These surcharges began in August 2008 and were paid off in 10 years.

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