SUE the So-and-So's

When all seems to be working well, it's time to SUE!

Thus speaketh Citizens' Utility Board (the Left with neckties) and its compatriot, Wisconsin Industrial Energy Council, which claims to represent firms employing over 60,000 people in Wisconsin.

Why do I say "...claims to represent..."? Because the website for WIEC will not tell you exactly who those 'firms' really are. But when Nino Amato runs his jaw, you can be sure that some utility, somewhere, will pay a price.

This time it's WE Energies.

In something of a complex deal, WE was authorized to keep the money they saved when they purchased Wisconsin Gas and right-sized the management teams and employee roster. That put them over their authorized 12.2% ROI limit to the tune of $52MM.

The wonzos want the money back. Of course, their press release is filled with irrelevant and immaterial stuff--like the recent authorized increases in rates due to the recent run-up of natural gas prices (you know, like gasoline prices...) They figure if they spray enough brown material at the reader, the reader will come to the conclusion that all those high prices mean WE is stealing.

So WE and the PSC will spend a few hundred thousand on lawyers to defend a decision made years ago. The sue-happy bozos will pepper the press with stories (like Bruce Murphy specializes in) telling us that all those Big Guys at WE are vastly overpaid.

But if you took back every dollar of compensation for the 5 highest-paid Big Guys at WE, it still wouldn't total $52MM--nor would you EVER notice it in your energy bill.

Memo to the Sue-Happy: get a life.