This involves the Joint Application of Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WP&L), Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPSC), and Madison Gas and Electric Company (MGE) for a Certificate of Authority to Install Emissions Reduction Systems at the Columbia Energy Center Units 1 and 2On November 9, 2009, the Intervenor Sierra Club filed a motion for interlocutory review under Wis. Admin. Code § PSC 2.27 asking the Commission to review a post-hearing, October 29, 2009, ruling by the Administrative Law Judge striking certain evidence from the record. Sierra Club asks that the stricken testimony and exhibit be admitted into the record as relevant background information for the Commission, and to contradict the Applicants’ “least cost” testimony supporting the proposed project. The Applicants Wisconsin Power and Light Company, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, and Madison Gas and Electric Company jointly responded to Sierra Club’s motion on November 13, 2009, asking that Sierra Club’s motion be denied on the grounds that the stricken testimony and exhibit are irrelevant to the issues in this proceeding. Both Sierra Club’s motion and the Applicants’ joint response are timely under Wis. Admin. Code § PSC 2.27 which provides for discretionary review by the Commission of orders and rulings issued by the administrative law judge in a proceeding. The October 29, 2009, Order To Strike was issued post-hearing, and struck Sierra Club’s confidential exhibit 440 and related confidential testimony from the evidentiary record for “lack of reasonable probative value.” In determining whether to grant or deny Sierra Club’s motion, the question before the Commission is whether the stricken exhibit and testimony have reasonable probative value as to the issues in this proceeding on an application for a certificate of authority under Wis. Stat. § 196.49.
Docket 5-CE-138
