| By Clem Guttata
I had a chance to read through the recent PSC Commission Order on PATH in more detail today and three more things caught my eye.
1. Will the commissioners attend public hearings? Ken Ward, Jr. and Calhouner had a discussion about this in the comments over at Coal Tattoo. From what I gather, typically commissioners do not attend PSC hearings. But, Gov. Manchin has specifically asked that they attend public hearings about PATH.
Does this sentence on pg.7 imply they intend to?
As described in the Commission Order of July 17, 2009, the Commission will hold (i) public comment hearings in various locations along the proposed route of the project so that the Commission can hear public comment regarding the PATH Project.
2. It's clear the PSC and staff are struggling with how to deal with such a large number of intervenors. It is a difficult logistical problem. Most of the adapted procedures look pretty reasonable. One area (also discussion over at Coal Tattoo) ripe for confusion is the role of the PSC-imposed county intervenor groups. The PSC is arbitrarily grouping together intervenors by county. My reading of the order is this will matter the most during the final stages when in-person cross-examination occurs. The PSC wants to limit the number of "spokespeople" who may can cross-examine. (I should double check, but I think they allow for all the individual intervenors to act individually in other steps such as discovery and opening statements.)
If indeed managing the logistical challenges of cross-examination is the primary rationale for creating these intervenor groups, I find the following request (on pg. 21) unreasonable:
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that within twenty days of the Commission Executive Secretary sending the service list the various County Intervenor Groups shall file with the Commission and serve on other parties (pursuant to Section 1V.d of this Order) the name of the spokesperson for each group.
That sounds arbitrary to me. You get notice on some day in the future--there's no telling when--and then you have less than three weeks to get all the other intervenors in your county together to name a spokesperson. (You have to have a couple days buffer time for the filing with the Commission to get there on time.)
3. Is there anyone in the legislature who will step up to the plate and work on changing this law (pg. 20)?
Several intervenors requested that either the Commission or the Applicants be required to pay for legal representation for those unrepresented by legal counsel. The Commission is limited in its actions by the laws of this state, and those laws do not authorize the Commission to undertake or require that type of arrangement. |
