TOP STORIES

Wisconsin Public Service Commission Ex Parte Rules Gutted
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 »
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Nevada PUC Chair Thomsen’s Ties to NV Energy Probed
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 »
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Arizona Corporation Commission Hires Ethics Officer
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 »
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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 »
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Commissioner Stump’s Text Messages Now Being Examined by Special Master
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 »
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California Official Denies Lobbying by Arizona Anti-Rooftop Solar Hired Gun
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 »
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American Wind Energy Association Calls Out Fossil Fuel Mouthpiece Robert Bryce
Fossil Fuel Mouthpiece Robert Bryce at it Again
2015-12-7
Several years ago, Checks and Balances Project confronted top clean energy denier, serial misleader, and fossil fuel mouthpiece Robert Bryce about his fossil fuel funding. Bryce is pretending to be a journalist and a scholar, not telling readers of his pieces that he is financially connected to the fossil fuel lobby. That’s something the New York Times… Read more »
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Thousands of Texts Found on Commissioner Stump’s iPhone
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 »
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