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
Erin
Chalmers
Environmental Law Fellow
Sierra Club Environmental Law Program
85 Second
St., 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA
94105
(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 Longview case.
Unfortunately, they have already been retained by other state parties, and due
to the potential conflict of interest, are unable to assist us. I will
follow up with the other leads.
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 Florida. We have worked with David
Schlissel (tell him
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 Massachusetts - Hale Powell is
the contact,
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,
Erin
(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 Second St., 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
(415) 977-5765 phone
(415)
977-5793 fax