Plan to boost utility rates draws critics; another hearing to be set

From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

We Energies customers weighed in on the utility's proposed rate increase on Tuesday, raising concerns about the utility's proposal to recoup revenue lost to sales declines caused by the recession.

But technical glitches at the hearing prompted the Public Service Commission to announce that another hearing will be scheduled at a later date.

At issue is a proposed $189 million price increase for electricity, as well as increases proposed for local natural gas charges and steam bought by Milwaukee and Wauwatosa businesses.

More than 40 people attended the afternoon hearing at Serb Hall on Milwaukee's south side, a bigger crowd than for any hearing on a We Energies rate case over the past six years.

Sandra Larson of Elm Grove said it's understandable that more revenue would be needed for certain things, such as building power plants.

"But to include an increase for lost revenue and pension plans while We Energies customers are conserving could be considered just plain greed," she said. "We Energies should get back to serving their customers and not penalizing them."

The hearing was conducted via speakerphone, as opposed to a video conferencing system that was used two years ago for the last rate increase proposal.

But the technical glitches made it difficult for the administrative law judge on the other end of the telephone, in Madison, to hear what customers in Milwaukee were saying, and the Madison-Milwaukee phone connection failed twice. More than a dozen customers left the hearing in frustration.

"This is not acceptable," commission chairperson Eric Callisto said in a statement. "I have asked staff to schedule another hearing to make sure that everybody who wants to be heard on these critical issues is heard."