Captured Regulators Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Checks and Balances Project

Wisconsin Public Service Commission Ex Parte Rules Gutted

2016-01-13

Part Two of a Series There are rules and then there are no rules. If you live in Wisconsin and want to talk to Public Service Commission of Wisconsin Chairperson Ellen Nowak or another commissioner about a utility’s proposal to, say, double the monthly fee for residential rooftop solar – essentially making it unaffordable –… Read more »

Nevada PUC Chair Thomsen’s Ties to NV Energy Probed

2016-01-11

Inquiry Triggered By Sweeping “Christmas Bait and Switch” Decision to Wipe Out Solar Jobs and Savings Citizen outrage is building in Nevada in the wake of the sweeping “Christmas Bait-and-Switch” decision that the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUC) made on Wednesday, December 23. The vote increases the monthly fee for residential solar customers and lowers… Read more »

Arizona Corporation Commission Hires Chief Ethics Officer

2016-01-7

Is it a New Era? Or Is Winter Coming? Can an ethics honcho help to restore public confidence in the Arizona Corporation Commission? There’s certainly a lot to clean up. On New Year’s Eve, Commissioner Bob Stump was partying with Strategen’s Lon Huber. Theoretically an impartial judge for Arizona citizens regarding energy rates, Stump… Read more »

Wisconsin’s Strange Case of the Missing Job Description

2016-01-4

First in a series on Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission We recently received an intriguing tip that the most powerful person at the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) isn’t Chairperson Ellen Nowak, or Commissioner (and former Chair) Phil Montgomery, or even the newest Commissioner, Mike Huebsch, whose previous job was managing Governor Scott Walker’s… Read more »

Commissioner Stump’s Text Messages Now Being Examined by Judge Cole

2015-12-22

3,598 Text Messages in Question Judge David Cole is now examining “thousands of text messages” downloaded by Arizona Attorney General’s office investigators from Corporation Commissioner Bob Stump’s taxpayer-provided smartphone. The phone was seized as part of an investigation into a whistleblower’s claims of misconduct on the troubled Commission. For months, we’ve sought access to… Read more »

California Official Denies Lobbying by Arizona Hired Gun

2015-12-14

Lon Huber was special projects advisor for RUCO, the Residential Utility Consumer Office of Arizona, when, in 2013, he proposed a new kind of fee to Chairman Bob Stump of the Arizona Corporation Commission. Huber’s idea was a “fixed charge on every solar customer’s bill.” It would become the nation’s first monthly utility fee for customers who… Read more »

Next Steps in the Investigation of Commissioner Stump’s Text Messages

2015-12-3

Last week, we agreed to the appointment of former Judge David Cole to serve as a Special Master to review the thousands of text messages found on Arizona Corporation Commissioner Bob Stump’s iPhone. On the same day as the announcement by Attorney General Brnovich about Corporation Commission Chair Susan Bitter Smith, we were briefed by… Read more »

Is Nevada Public Utilities Commissioner David Noble Evading Release of Public Records?

2015-11-23

Commissioner David Noble and the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC) legal staff are stalling the release of public records owned by Nevada taxpayers. Three months ago, on August 25, 2015, we submitted a request using the Nevada Public Records Act that asks to see records of Nevada PUC Commissioner David Noble’s meetings and communications with… Read more »

Thousands of Texts Found on Commissioner Stump’s iPhone

2015-10-30

In response to our lawsuit on Oct. 28, 2015, a spokesman for the Arizona Attorney General’s office told both Howard Fischer of Capitol Media Services and Laurie Roberts of The Arizona Republic that AG investigators have found “thousands of texts” on Corporation Commissioner Bob Stump’s iPhone 5. This is another blow to the credibility of the… Read more »

Checks and Balances Project Files Lawsuit for Access to Commissioner Bob Stump’s Taxpayer-Funded Phone

2015-10-28

October 28, 2015 – Checks and Balances Project (C&BP) announced today that it has filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) that demands immediate access to public records on Commissioner Bob Stump’s taxpayer-funded smartphone. The Complaint for Special Action was filed in Maricopa County Superior Court. “The… Read more »

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