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Yankee Gas to provide Bank of America credit report under protective order, PURA agrees
Summary
At a late-file exhibit hearing, Yankee Gas told the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority it will file a Bank of America credit-analyst report responsive to a late-file exhibit request and that it is not asserting privilege; PURA said the company may file the report under confidential cover and asked for timely submission.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) on Oct. 12 heard a procedural dispute over late-filed exhibit 133, a Bank of America credit-analyst report that Yankee Gas said it held but could not share without the bank’s consent. At the hearing, the company told the authority it will produce the report under a protective order and invited Bank of America to file any objections.
PURA Chairperson began the exchange by asking whether Yankee was asserting any common-law or statutory privilege to withhold the report. Attorney Vincent Pace for Yankee Gas said the company is not asserting attorney-client or work-product privilege; rather, the company did not have Bank of America’s consent to reproduce the report. “We do not have an objection to the production of that information,” Pace said, adding that the company would file the document under confidential cover and notify Bank of America so that the bank could communicate any position directly to the docket if it wished.
PURA accepted that approach and directed Yankee Gas to submit the Bank of America report with a motion for protective treatment. The authority said it would review the submission in due course and requested that, if possible, the company file the report by the end of the day. Attorney Pace told the authority he would discuss timing with his administrative team and attempt to meet the request.
Why this matters: The report was cited in a late-file exhibit relating to Yankee Gas’s rate case. PURA’s direction to file the document under confidential cover preserves the administrative record while protecting third-party confidentiality claims through the agency’s protective-order procedures.
Context and process notes: The company and intervenors discussed other late-file exhibits and witness scheduling earlier in the morning. PURA and parties repeatedly used the late-file-exhibit process to move materials into the record and to identify where affidavits could stand in for live testimony when witnesses were unavailable.
What’s next: PURA will review the confidential filing when it arrives and may request further filings from Bank of America if the bank chooses to comment. Any protective order that PURA grants will specify access rules and redaction/custody conditions for the submitted report.
