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OAH 15-2500-20665-2
PUC No. ET-2,E-002/TL-09-246
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STATE OF MINNESOTA
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
FOR THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
A prehearing
conference was held before Beverly Jones Heydinger, Administrative Law Judge,
on September 25, 2009, at the Public Utilities Commission, 350 Metro Square Building, 121 Seventh Place East, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Appearances:
Lisa M. Agrimonti, Briggs and Morgan, P.A., and Priti R. Patel, Xcel
Energy, appeared on behalf of Northern States Power Company and Great River
Energy (Applicants). Laureen Ross
McCalib, Great River Energy, and Darrin F. Lahr, Xcel Energy, were also
present.
Karen Finstad Hammel, Assistant Attorney General, appeared on behalf of
the Department of Commerce, Office of Energy Security, Energy Facility
Permitting Staff (Department).
Deb Pile, Public Advisor, Department of Commerce, Office of Energy Security,
was present.
Commission staff, Bret Eknes and Bob Cupit, were present.
David Seykora, Minnesota Department of Transportation, also attended.
Discussion was held among the participants concerning the proposed
schedule. The Administrative Law Judge makes
the following Prehearing Order.
IT IS HEREBY
ORDERED:
Intervention
1.
Members of the public need not become formal
parties to participate in the hearing. They
may offer either oral or written testimony, and they may offer exhibits for
inclusion in the record. Any person may
“subscribe” to the E-docket system to receive electronic notice when documents
are filed in E-docket in this matter. However,
any person desiring to become a formal party must file a petition to intervene.
2.
Persons who wish to intervene in this proceeding
are requested to file a written petition to intervene with the Administrative
Law Judge no later than January 22, 2010,
as set forth in Minn. R. 1400.6200. Any
objection to a petition shall be filed within seven business days of service of
the petition. The petition shall be served upon all parties, pursuant to the
E-service list in effect at the time of the petition. A Notice of Appearance shall be filed with
the Petition.
3.
The Department will provide a copy of this Order
to the Local Governmental Units that may be affected by this proceeding and
post a copy on its website.
Schedule
4.
The following schedule is adopted:
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Direct Testimony,
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January 28, 2010
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Rebuttal Testimony of Parties,
Comments from
OES
Surrebuttal Testimony,
Comments from OES
List of Proposed Exhibits and
Witnesses
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February 17, 2010
February 24, 2010
March 1, 2010
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It is anticipated
that the Draft Environmental Impact Statement will be available on January 11,
2010, and the Final Environmental Impact Statement will be filed by March 19,
2010.
5.
The Witness List shall state the order in which
the party’s witnesses are expected to testify.
6.
A combined public hearing and evidentiary
hearing will be held on March 8, 2010, at
2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., at the Clearwater Township Hall, Clearwater, Minnesota,
and will continue on February 9-12, 2010, as necessary to complete the hearing.
7.
Public Comments may also be submitted in writing
to the Administrative Law Judge and must be received by 4:30 p.m. on March 19, 2010.
8.
The parties shall file their post-hearing briefs
on April 2, 2010, and responsive briefs on April 16, 2010.
9.
A telephone conference will be held on January 29, 2010, at 9:30 a.m. to
review the hearing schedule. Parties
will be sent call in information.
Publication
of Hearing Schedule
10.
The staff and the Applicant shall develop a
notice of hearing specifying the date, time and location of the hearing, for
publication no fewer than 10 days and no more than 45 days in advance of the
hearing, and shall serve notice as specified in Minn. Stat. § 216E.03, subd.
6. As required by Minn. R. pt. 7850.3800,
subd. 1, a portion of the hearing must be held in one of the counties where the
proposed high voltage transmission line will be located, and Clearwater is so located.
Date of Filing, Sending or Receipt
11.
Any document that is filed, or is sent to
request or in response to a request for discovery, or for any other purpose,
after 4:30 p.m. on a business day, on a weekend day or on a Minnesota state
holiday shall be considered filed, sent or received on the next business day.
Discovery
12.
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 U.S. mail or
other delivery service to all parties, unless the party receiving the request
agrees to e-mail service only. To the
extent that a request includes material designated as Trade Secret or Nonpublic
under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act, Chapter 13, an e-mail
request is required only between the requesting and responding party. Requests shall be sent to the person(s)
designated to receive data requests.
13.
The responding party shall provide the requested
information to the requesting party within ten business days of receipt of the
request. In accordance with Minn. R.
1400.6100, subpt. 1, the day that the information request is received shall not
be counted in the ten-day period.
14.
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 U.S. mail or other delivery
service, unless the party receiving the response agrees to e-mail service
only. To the extent that a response
includes material designated as Trade Secret or Nonpublic, an e-mail response
is required only between the requesting party and the responding party.
15.
In the event that due to the volume or nature of
information included in a response, the responding party is unable to send the
response by e-mail, the responding party shall send the response by facsimile,
regular U.S. mail or other delivery service so that the requesting party
receives the entire response by the date due, including any material designated
as Trade Secret or Nonpublic. Responding
parties may utilize CDs to convey large volumes of data. If the response is sent by facsimile, the
responding party shall follow the facsimile with a copy of the response sent by
regular U.S.
mail or other delivery service.
16.
There shall be a continuing obligation to update
and supplement information responses with any responsive material that may
subsequently be discovered or acquired by the responding party. The responsive information shall be supplied to
each party that requested it.
17.
A party that wishes to receive e-mail copies of
requests or responses shall notify the requesting/responding party, who 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 seek a Protective Order in
this matter before providing the information.
18.
In the event the information cannot be supplied
within ten 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 agree on a schedule of
compliance with the requesting party.
19.
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. Hearings on such motions may be conducted by
telephone conference call.
Prefiled Testimony
20.
Prefiled testimony shall be marked as an exhibit
with the case docket number and offered for admission into the record at the
hearing. A hard copy shall be provided
for that purpose and, if the document has been previously e-filed, the offering
party shall provide the unique E-docket identifying number. The Administrative Law Judge will assign a
hearing exhibit number to the document at the time that it is offered into
evidence at the hearing.
21.
Prefiled testimony that is amended or not
offered into the record 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 substantive 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.
Order of Testimony
22.
Unless the parties agree otherwise, the order of
testimony shall be: the Applicants,
intervenors, if any, in the order of intervention, and the Department. Questioning of the witnesses shall proceed in
the same order, subject to change by agreement of the parties or further order
of the Administrative Law Judge.
Examination of Witnesses
23.
Witnesses shall be allowed ten minutes to
summarize their prefiled testimony. For
good cause shown, witnesses will be permitted to respond to any new matters not
addressed in prefiled testimony through direct examination.
24.
Parties shall examine and cross-examine
witnesses through their attorneys, if the parties 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.
25.
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’s prefiled testimony shall be considered waived unless the
objecting party states its objection by motion made to the Administrative Law
Judge, and serves a copy of such objections on the parties, no later than March 3, 2010.
Procedure
26.
The rules of the Office of Administrative
Hearings and Minn. R. 7850.3100 et seq.,
govern the conduct of the hearings, and the Professionalism Aspirations adopted
by the Minnesota Supreme Court will be observed.
Filing of Documents
(Excluding Information Requests and Responses)
27.
The service list for the contested case
proceeding shall be maintained and revised as necessary by the Office of
Administrative Hearings.
28.
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.
29.
The parties have agreed to file all documents,
including prefiled testimony, using the E-Docket system of the Public Utilities
Commission, the Department and the Office of Administrative Hearings. Such e-filing constitutes service on those
offices and upon any other party that has agreed to accept e-filing as service,
as specified on the E-service list.
30.
Documents or exhibits that can not be e-filed
shall be mailed by U.S. Mail or delivered to the parties.
31.
The effective date of filing shall be the date
the document is e-filed, mailed by U.S. Mail, or delivered to the
Administrative Law Judge. Parties using
the E-file system must retain the unique document identifier as proof of
service through that system. Proof of
service shall be filed with each document or within three business days
thereafter.
32.
The original and one copy of each document shall
also be mailed or delivered to the Administrative Law Judge and one hard copy
shall be mailed or delivered to the Commission staff.
33.
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.
34.
If trade secret or nonpublic data is filed with
the Administrative Law Judge, it 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 may be viewed at www.puc.state.mn.us/PUC/consumers/data-practices/index.html. The party submitting the data may request a
Protective Order.
Court Reporter
35.
A court reporter will be present at the
hearing. Parties must make arrangements
with the court reporter to obtain a copy of the transcript.
Request for
Accommodation
36.
No person has requested accommodation for a
disability or appointment of an interpreter.
The Office of Administrative Hearings shall be notified promptly if
either an accommodation or interpreter is needed.
Subpoenas
37.
Requests for subpoenas for the attendance of
witnesses or the production of documents shall be made in writing 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.
Dated
this 29th day of September, 2009.
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s/Beverly
Jones Heydinger
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BEVERLY JONES HEYDINGER
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Administrative Law Judge
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