Sufficient Explanation – Administrative

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WI Court of Appeals – District IV

Case Name: Renew Wisconsin v. Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, et al.

Case No.: 2015AP911

Officials: Kloppenburg, P.J., Lundsten and Sherman, JJ.

Focus: Sufficient Explanation – Administrative

RENEW argues that we should affirm the circuit court order remanding to the Commission for further consideration because the Commission’s decision “lacks sufficient explanation to be reviewable” and “is not supported by substantial evidence that generating systems larger than 20 kilowatts or annual netting cause the utility to under-collect fixed costs or provide a cross-subsidy.” RENEW also argues that the Commission’s decision is arbitrary and capricious because “it treats customer-generators served by [WPSC] differently than customer generators served by other large investor-owned utilities in Wisconsin” and because it targets generating systems larger that 20 kW as receiving a crosssubsidy while ignoring the half of customers who also receive the cross-subsidy because they buy less than the average amount of electricity. For the reasons set forth below, we agree with the Commission and reject RENEW’s arguments. Therefore, we reverse the circuit court’s order and affirm the Commission’s Final Decision.

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.