Let’s have a phone conference
Friday, July 27 at 7:00 p.m. to start the plan for intervention. If you cannot
make this time please let me know beforehand.
Karen
1 (866) 501-6174
Conference Code: 1005700
From: Stephen M.
Walker [mailto:stephenwalkeresq@gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2007 11:02
PM
To: Grubb, Karen
Cc: James Kotcon; Barbara Fallon;
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Subject: Re: two emails from
National concerning Intervention
I'm available pretty much
any time this week.
Steve
On 7/23/07, Grubb,
Karen <kgrubb@fairmontstate.edu
> wrote:
I am
leaving this weekend and will be gone for a week. Who wants to have a
phone conference this week to get started on the plan?
I spoke
with David Herring last Friday and just sent that form, too. Below are
the two emails from Erin Chalmers.
Karen
-----------------------------------------------------
From: Erin.Chalmers@sierraclub.org
[mailto:
Erin.Chalmers@sierraclub.org]
Sent: Wed 6/27/2007 8:09 PM
To: william.depaulo@gmail.com;
pjgrunt@gmail.com;
Grubb, Karen; jkotcon@wvu.edu
Subject: Allegheny Transmission
Line intervention
Hi Bill and all,
On
behalf of the national Sierra Club, the WV chapter has authorization to
intervene in the PSC hearing in the Allegheny transmission line case. It
looks like a great issue and I'm glad the chapter is taking it on!
I
think this case presents many opportunities and also some difficult issues.
You all are obviously already working with other chapters and groups on
the larger issue, but to the extent I can be of assistance in getting
resources, please let me know. For instance, I may be able to find
testimony from other PSC hearings that addresses the true costs of coal or
potential rate savings from efficiency. In terms of issues, my concern on
this case is mostly financial - as you well know, the chapter will have to
decide how much it can put into the case and plan accordingly. Bill has
generously offered to carry out this case on a reduced fee basis. My
understanding from talking with Bill today is that he expects the chapter to
make good faith efforts to raise funds to pay for part of his time but that
there is no specific fee cap or arrangement. Because you are a chapter
member, Bill, I'm sure you'll work closely with Karen and others to make sure
they understand how much time you are putting in and how much payment you
expect.
I
bring this up just because I have seen similarly lax fee arrangements go awry
in other cases, and I don't want any surprises for the chapter or for Bill down
the road. So I strongly encourage Karen and the chapter to work very
closely with Bill and to make sure he is comfortable with what the chapter is
raising for funds for him. The new matter form I received noted that
$5000 would be allotted to legal expenses - I don't believe this was expected
to be a fee cap of any sort, but rather just an estimate of possible and
reasonable costs that the chapter would fund as needed. Again, I expect
that Karen and Bill, and others, will work out their expectations as to paying
for Bill's time. An little work now in terms of figuring out your
funding expectations is worth it to avoid big headaches later. I have
seen big fights in chapters over fee issues and just want to make sure that
doesn't happen here.
As
another reminder, any settlement (which doesn't seem likely at this point)
would require separate national authorization. Also, please keep me
informed of any major developments in the case and feel free to ask if you have
any questions I might be able to help with.
Best
of luck and thanks for your hard work on this issue!
thanks,
Erin
Environmental Law Fellow
Sierra Club Environmental Law Program
(415) 977-5765 phone
(415) 977-5793 fax
-----------------------------------------------------
From: James
Kotcon [mailto:
jkotcon@wvu.edu]
Sent: Tue 6/26/2007 10:00 AM
To: Grubb, Karen; Erin.Chalmers@sierraclub.org
Cc: Fallon, Barbara; Paul Wilson;
'Dave Muhly'; Glen Besa; Peter.Martin@sierraclub.org; 'James Kotcon'
Subject: RE: Allegheny
Transmission line deadline - WVPSC Intervention
Thanks for the leads. We (I) have already
contacted Synapse, as they worked with us on the
JBK
>>> <Erin.Chalmers@sierraclub.org>
6/25/2007 8:49 PM >>>
Hi Jim, Karen and all,
Thanks for the detailed new matter form that Paul just sent. I wanted to
get back to you with some potential financial and expert resources for
this case.
First, it looks like the national law program is interested in
contributing up to about $3000 toward the case. This case fits well with
our ongoing energy work, so we'd love to support it. Also,
you may have
already tried, but if not, it might be worth your while to ask the Club's
national Global Warming and Smart Energy Committee - Joan Saxe is chair. I
have no idea if they have money, but they might have either money or
interest in helping in other ways (finding other resources, helping with
media, etc). Ditto with the Sustainable Planet Strategy Team. I'll
also
alert our media dept that this is happening, and they might be able to
offer some assistance as well in the form of advising, writing press
releases or looking over ones you have.
Second, I have a couple potential leads for expert witness/analysis help.
1) Synapse Energy Consultants. We have used them before in other cases,
including in
Kristin Henry referred you) before, who was very good. Their website is:
http://www.synapse-energy.com/aboutus/
2) ACEEE: http://www.aceee.org/ We don't
have a specific contact there,
but they may be able to help
3) HP Energy Associates, in
who we have worked with before.
hpenergy@aol.com
978-392-8442
Folks in our office also recommended that you might be able to get more
bang for your buck if you were able to partner with a local university who
could then work with one or more of the experts. The hired expert could
do some big picture research and could potentially assign some discrete
tasks to university researchers, thus stretching your money as well as
getting more local buy-in and support.
Lastly, I attached a memo one of our interns recently compiled - it lists
existing research and papers addressing costs and other issues of
demand-side management and energy efficiency. Some of those reports could
be helpful.
thanks, and I'll work with Jim DePaulo to get national authorization in
time for him to file on the chapter's behalf,
(this is a report mentioned in the other attachment that
can't be easily found online)
Erin Chalmers
Environmental Law Fellow
Sierra Club Environmental Law Program
85
(415) 977-5765 phone
(415) 977-5793 fax