We’ve just received a report about today’s MPSC hearing on phase two of the Enbridge project. The hearing before Administrative Law Judge Theresa Sheets today was to rule on two questions:

  1. The motion for order compelling discovery. We wrote about this one yesterday in our post welcoming Enbridge readers. At issue was whether Enbridge would have to answer certain questions, such as whether they had obtained appropriate local consents. As I said yesterday, Enbridge has argued that such questions are irrelevant to the MPSC proceedings; I also said that their argument was plausible, given the weakness of the MPSC from a regulatory standpoint. Well, sure enough, the Judge denied the motion, which means that Enbridge does not have to answer the question of consent in these proceedings. That’s not a huge surprise– but it is all the more reason to contact your state elected officials to demand legislation that puts in place sue real regulation in Michigan.We look forward to reading and commenting on the transcript of this hearing when it becomes available in the next few days. Stay tuned.
  2. The second issue was whether to allow “delayed intervenors.” These are affected landowners who missed the original deadline to intervene, but who nevertheless wanted to do so– and so filed late. Enbridge sought to deny their motion to intervene late. And they won. However, there are still plenty of intervenors whose testimony and experiences will still be considered. And all those delayed intervenors who can no longer be an official part of the MPSC proceedings? Well, they can just become part of the growing number of folks making noise in other ways.

More details on all of this as they become available.