Several companies continued to hammer Milwaukee before the Wisconsin Public...
Several companies continued to hammer Milwaukee before the Wisconsin Public Service Commission due to the city’s proposed streetcar network, which the companies argue will interfere with their facilities and force expensive relocation. These protesting companies include AT&T Wisconsin, Time Warner…
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Cable, the Wisconsin Cable Communications Association, tw telecom of Wisconsin, PAETEC Communications, McLeodUSA Telecommunications Services and Norlight Telecommunications. The debate has largely devolved into a procedural one, “ongoing for the past 18 months” and with “a number of procedural twists and turns” as the angry utilities say, now relating to whether the PSC has authority over these issues and Milwaukee’s Feb. 18 request for interlocutory review before the PSC. This week the PSC received briefs in response to that Milwaukee request, which questioned the PSC’s authority: “If the Utilities are harmed by the streetcar project, they can seek redress from a circuit court, which does have authority to award compensatory damages,” it said (http://1.usa.gov/102xc8O). The petitioners disagreed. “The City continues to ignore the Commission’s authority to determine the reasonableness of the City’s actions affecting the relocation of utility facilities,” the companies said in their latest Monday filing (http://1.usa.gov/ZdYQNM). “Instead, at every turn, the City is attempting to manufacture opportunities to chip away at the Commission’s jurisdiction.” The Wisconsin Institute of Law and Liberty, in a separate filing Monday (http://1.usa.gov/ZdYQNM), attacked the city of Milwaukee’s earlier arguments as setting up straw men and digging into issues the PSC already addressed. The PSC jurisdictional issues matter due to the potential costs the streetcar project would cause the utilities, the first group of utilities said: “Such a basis for voiding a municipal regulation is clearly evident here, where the City regulations at issue would strap utilities and their ratepayers with 100% of the estimated $70 million in facility relocation costs caused by a streetcar project that is budgeted at $64.6 million.” Other companies also filed objections with some of Milwaukee’s arguments: “The Commission should reject the City’s attempt to cherry pick certain factual questions out of the Issues list and have them excluded from the proceeding,” said Wisconsin Electric Power Co., Wisconsin Gas, American Transmission Co. and ATC Management in a joint filing (http://1.usa.gov/166vWFT).