Individual lines, paragraphs and entire pages of documents and testimony regarding the sale of Puget Sound Energy will remain blacked out after state utilities regulators on Nov. 13 refused a request to make the information public.
The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) is sifting through hundreds of documents, statements and interviews regarding the proposed sale of PSE to the Macquarie Consortium. But many of the documents, whole pages at times, are blacked out and kept from public viewing.
The practice, which is allowed under WUTC rules, is not uncommon. But it could be becoming too common, according to the state office representing small-business customers in utility rate cases.
“We have a concern about the amount of information the utility companies are designating as confidential in front of the commission,” said Simon ffitch (who doesn’t capitalize the first letter of his last name), the Attorney General’s Public Counsel section chief. “That’s kind of an ongoing issue that we see. There appears to be an increase in that practice.”
Public Counsel filed a final reply at the end of October that explained its concern over information in the PSE sale that has remained blacked out. Ffitch filed a formal request to disclose the information to the public.
“It is not clear to Public Counsel why this critical characteristic of the transaction financing is being kept confidential and not disclosed to the public,” ffitch wrote.
The utilities commission rejected ffitch’s request, explaining that the information includes aspects of the proposal that pose a “significant risk” to the sale, if released.
In a 23-page document, the WUTC explained that withholding information in such cases is often necessary because utilities must acquire wholesale power and capital in “highly competitive markets.”
The WUTC further criticized ffitch for not taking action on the redacted information until after Dianne Woody, a retired state senator from the 29th Legislative District, filed a public records request. The commission suggested that the redactions were not a concern to Public Counsel until the request.
Woody filed her request on Aug. 25, and Puget Sound Energy immediately filed for a restraining order in Thurston County Superior Court to keep the information confidential until the commission could make a decision on the confidentiality.
Ffitch said Woody’s request for information did create a higher profile for the issue, but said it was an ongoing issue for his office.
PSE representatives have said there are “business reasons” for keeping the information confidential.
Parties involved in the case have been unable to say what is redacted, but in an Oct. 24 filing, ffitch called the redacted information a “critical characteristic of the transaction financing.”
The three-person commission has been considering the proposal since stakeholders in the request filed final briefings in September, but the commission allowed the parties to submit replies to the final briefs.
