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Smitherman Blasts Utility Lawyers PDF Print E-mail
by Will Lutz    Sat, Apr 26, 2008, 12:08 PM
The Public Utility Commission of Texas voted to delay consideration of which powerlines get built to bring wind power to more populated areas of Texas. But not before Chairman Barry Smitherman and the other two Public Utility Commissioners got the opportunity to give a few utility lawyers a piece of their mind.

For the past few months, the Public Utility Commission has been considering the Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZ) docket. It is part of fulfilling a legislative mandate to designate where conditions are best for wind power and develop a plan to add transmission lines to get the wind power from those areas to the populated parts of the state. The docket already has more than 1,000 entries and is rapidly approaching 1,100.

As a part of this process the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) prepared a report, giving the commission options on which transmission lines should get built and at what cost. All of the major players in the electric industry have opinions on that matter.

Because of legislative interest in increasing wind power, commissioners -- and particularly Paul Hudson -- wanted to take this matter up as soon as possible. An administrative law judge proposed a timetable that would allow the commission to make a decision in late May or early June. But several parties -- most notably FPL Energy (Florida Power and Light) filed procedural objections to the schedule and desired to present testimony and cross-examine witnesses.

Reluctantly, Commissioner Julie Parsley suggested that the commission had a legal obligation to adopt a less-rapid timetable and hear evidence in this matter. The commission did so, directing the administrative law judge to revise the timetable such that the commission could consider the matter in mid-to-late July.

But not before Smitherman had the opportunity to give a few of the utility lawyers, who he noted bill by the hour, a piece of his mind. He said the situation has "spun out of control." Smitherman lifted several tall boxes of paper and notebooks up onto the dias. The boxes contained the filings in the CREZ docket. Smitherman characterizes one of the appeals as "here are the grounds we're going to use to sue you." Of the filing, he said, "that's never really a good idea, but everyone has their rights, so let's talk about what we need to do here to go forward without having a delay that sets us back more than a month or two."
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