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OAH 4-2500-20645-2
PUC E-015/PA-09-526 |
STATE OF
OFFICE
OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
FOR THE
PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
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In the Matter of Minnesota Power’s Petition to Purchase
Square Butte Cooperative’s Transmission Assets and for Restructuring Power
Purchase Agreements from |
FIRST
PREHEARING ORDER |
A prehearing conference was held before Bruce H. Johnson,
Administrative Law Judge, on July 8, 2009, at the Public Utilities Commission,
David Moeller, Associate General Counsel, Allete, Inc.,
Linda S. Jensen, Assistant Attorney General, 1400
Andrew P. Moratzka, Attorneys at Law, Mackall, Crounse &
Moore, 1400
Clark Kaml, Rates Analyst, appeared for and on behalf of the
Public Utilities Commission staff.
Based upon the
record and the discussion among the participants at the prehearing conference, the
Administrative Law Judge makes the following:
ORDER
Procedure
1.
The rules of the Office of Administrative Hearings govern the
conduct of the hearings in this matter.
Parties must notify the Office of Administrative Hearings as soon as
possible if or interpreter or an accommodation for a disability is needed to
enable participation in any of the hearings.
2.
Requests of subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses or the
production of documents shall be made to the Administrative Law Judge pursuant
to Minn. R. 1400.7000. A copy of the subpoena request
shall be served on the other parties. A
subpoena request form is available at www.oah.state.mn.us.
Parties,
Intervention, and Public Participation
3.
The parties to this matter, as named in the Commissioner’s
Notice and Order for Hearing issued on July 1, 2009, are
4.
Other persons who wish to intervene as parties in this
proceeding must file a Petition to Intervene that complies with Minn. R.
1400.6200 with the Administrative Law Judge no later than September 15, 2009. Copies of the Petition must be served upon
all existing parties and the Commission.
A Notice of Appearance must be filed with the Petition. Objections to such a petition must be filed
within seven days of the filing of the petition.
5.
Members of the public need not become parties to participate
in this matter. If time permits, public
participation may also be permitted by the Administrative Law Judge during the
evidentiary hearing. Any person who
participates in the evidentiary hearing may offer oral or written testimony and
exhibits pursuant to Minn. R. 1400.6200, subp. 5, and 1400.7150, subp. 1,
and may be questioned by the parties and the ALJ.
Schedule
6.
The following schedule is adopted:
|
Event or Document |
Event Date or Due Date |
|
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August 10, 2009 |
|
Deadline for Petitions to Intervene |
September 15, 2009 |
|
Other Parties' Rebuttal Testimony Due |
September 15, 2009 |
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Deadline for Parties’ Objections to
Petitions to Intervene |
September 17, 2009 |
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Evidentiary Hearing in |
September 17-18, 2009 |
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Minnesota Power’s Post-Hearing Brief |
September 25, 2009* |
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Responsive Briefs Due |
October 2, 2009* |
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ALJ Report and Recommendation Due |
October 27, 2009* |
|
Exceptions to ALJ Report (20 days
after report pursuant to Minn. R. 7929.2700, subp. 1) MP will need variance from MPUC to
shorten to ten days |
November 6, 2009* |
|
Replies to Exceptions (10 days later
pursuant to Minn. R. 7929.2700, subp. 2 MP will need variance from MPUC |
Waive |
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Tentative MPUC Hearing |
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 |
7.
Nonpublic versions of prefiled testimony shall be eFiled by
the date indicated; paper copies thereof must be received by the ALJ and
appropriate parties the following business day.
8.
Notice of the public and evidentiary hearings shall be given
by Minnesota Power as set forth in the Commission's Notice and Order for
Hearing.
Settlement
9.
Minn. Stat. § 216B.16, subd. 1(a), requires the
Administrative Law Judge to convene a proceeding for the purpose of encouraging
settlement of any or all of the issues in this proceeding. The Administrative Law Judge encourages the
parties to discuss opportunities for settlement with each other prior to the evidentiary
hearing. During the days of the evidentiary
hearing, an informal conference will be held to discuss the progress of such
discussions.
Discovery
10.
A party may serve requests for information on any other
party. All requests for information
shall be made in writing by e-mail, and the requesting party shall follow the
e-mail with a copy of the request sent by regular
11.
The party responding to the request shall provide the
requested information to the requesting party within eight business days of
receipt of the information request. If
the information cannot be supplied within eight business days, the responding
party shall notify the requesting party as soon as reasonably possible in
advance of the deadline of the reasons for not being able to supply the
information and attempt to work out a schedule of compliance with the
requesting party.
12.
Responses to information requests shall be submitted by
e-mail, and the responding party shall follow the e-mail with a copy of the
response sent by regular
13.
If the responding party is unable to send the response by
e-mail because of the volume or nature of information included in a response,
the responding party shall send the response by facsimile,
14.
A party that wishes to receive e-mail copies of requests or
responses shall notify the requesting or responding party, which shall provide
the information in that format. If the
request or response contains material designated as Trade Secret or Nonpublic
information, the providing party may require that the requesting party comply
with the terms of the Protective Order in this matter before providing the
information.
15.
Minnesota Power will be proposing a Protective Order for
these proceedings. Other parties shall
have three business days to file any objections to that proposed Protective
Order.
16.
A common practice in Commission proceedings is for a party
to make a blanket information request for copies of all responses to other
parties' information requests. Any
responding party is allowed to object and decline to provide all or certain
Trade Secret or Nonpublic information in responses to any particular party. Any party denied responses in this manner may
raise the issue with the ALJ through a motion to compel.
17.
The following persons shall be served with an e-mail copy of
any information requests or responses addressed to Minnesota Power.
David R. Moeller (dmoeller@allete.com)
Any
necessary paper copies of information requests or responses shall be mailed to:
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David R. Moeller |
18.
All disputes concerning the reasonableness of discovery
requests and the timing and sufficiency of responses shall be resolved by the
Administrative Law Judge upon motion of a party. Such motions may be brought informally by
email. Notice of such motions will be
made by email. Informal motions to
address discovery requests and responses will usually be heard by telephone
conference.
Prefiled
Testimony
19.
Prefiled testimony and exhibits may be in any reasonable
format that is understandable, logically organized, and capable of being cited
by page and line number, paragraph number, or similar identifier.
20.
A paper copy of prefiled testimony being offered for admission
into the record at the hearing shall be provided for use at the hearing. The offering party will identify the document
as having been eFiled (with the unique eFile identifying number of the document). The Administrative Law Judge will assign a
hearing exhibit number to the document at the time that it is offered for
admission at the hearing.
21.
Corrections to any prefiled testimony shall be identified
and marked on the paper copy of the exhibit.
Those changes will be eFiled as soon as practicable after the
hearing. A hearing exhibit list will be
prepared that identifies each exhibit in the hearing record, with its hearing
exhibit number and unique eFile identifying number. The eFiled documents constitute the official
record of the proceeding, along with any supplemental record data that cannot
be eFiled. Any such supplemental record
data will be identified by the ALJ as included in the official record.
22.
Prefiled testimony that is not offered into the record or
stricken portions of prefiled testimony that is offered, shall be considered
withdrawn and no witness shall be cross-examined concerning the withdrawn
testimony. Any new affirmative matter
that is not offered in reply to another party's direct case will not be allowed
in rebuttal testimony and exhibits. Except
for good cause shown, all revisions or corrections to any prefiled testimony
shall be in writing and served upon the Administrative Law Judge and the
parties no later than three days prior to the commencement of the evidentiary
hearing.
Witnesses
23.
Subject to change by agreement of the parties or further
order of the Administrative Law Judge, the order of testimony shall be: Minnesota
Power, any Intervenors in the order their petitions are filed, and OES. Questioning of the witnesses shall proceed in
the same order, followed by Commission staff and the Administrative Law Judge.
24.
In the event that a witness must be scheduled for a day
certain to offer testimony, the sponsoring party should attempt to reach
agreement with the other parties and then submit a request to the
Administrative Law Judge.
25.
Witnesses will
be allowed ten minutes in which to summarize their prefiled testimony. In order for a witness to include new
information in his or her summary, the party offering that witness’ testimony
must obtain the prior approval of the Administrative Law Judge upon a motion
with a showing of good cause for not having addressed that information in
prefiled testimony. Similarly, a witness
will be permitted to respond to new matter raised by another party that was not
previously addressed in prefiled testimony upon direct examination and with the
prior approval of the Administrative Law Judge.
26.
Parties shall examine and cross-examine witnesses through
their attorneys if they are represented by counsel. Any party not represented by counsel may
examine and cross-examine each witness through any one representative chosen by
the party.
27.
Except for good cause shown, objections by any party
relative to the qualifications of a witness or the admissibility of any portion
of a witness' prefiled testimony shall be considered waived unless the objecting
party states its objection by motion made to the Administrative Law Judge,
prior to commencement of the evidentiary hearing.
Filing
of Documents (Excluding Information Requests and Responses)
28.
Original documents shall be filed using the Commission's eFiling
system where feasible, in accordance with
29.
The effective date of filing shall be the date the document
is eFiled, mailed by U.S. Mail, or delivered to the Administrative Law
Judge. Parties using the eFiling system
should retain the unique document identifier as proof of filing through that
system. Proof of service to the service
list in this proceeding shall be filed with each document or within three
business days thereafter.
30.
With the exception of Trade Secret and other Nonpublic Data,
copies of all documents that are filed shall be served by e-mail according to
the attached official service list by 4:00 p.m., and a hard copy shall also be
mailed or delivered that day to the persons so indicated on the official
service list. The list will be revised
as necessary by the Office of Administrative Hearings.
31.
Hard copies of trade secret and other nonpublic data shall
be transmitted by U.S. Mail or delivery to the parties who have signed Exhibit
A to the Protective Order. Such
documents may be served on the next business day following the filing of the
public version.
32.
After the Administrative Law Judge's Report is issued, the
parties shall file the original of all documents with the Executive Secretary
of the Commission in accordance with the Commission’s standards.
33.
Where Trade
Secret or Nonpublic Data is filed with the Administrative Law Judge, that
filing shall be prepared and marked in accordance with the Public Utilities
Commission's September 1, 1999, Revised Procedures for Handling Trade Secret
and Privileged Data. The procedures are
available from the Commission website and may be viewed at:
http://www.puc.state.mn.us/portal/groups/public/documents/pdf_files/000671.pdf .
Access to nonpublic data shall be governed by the
Protective Order to be issued in this proceeding.
Dated: July 17, 2009
s/Bruce
H. Johnson
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BRUCE H. JOHNSON Assistant Chief
Administrative Law Judge |