Avista Customer Group (ACG) is a nonprofit organization founded for the expressed purpose of stopping the Avista-Hydro One merger. We have a large following in multiple states and are growing rapidly.<\/p>\n
ACG has retained the services of Norm Semanko of Parsons Behle & Latimer law firm in Boise, Idaho.<\/p>\n
The new group has had success in Idaho by having the PUC schedule an evidentiary hearing and granting our group, intervenor status. Our filing then brought The Idaho Water Resources Board to also claim intervenor status.<\/p>\n
Washington State has reopened their already closed process due to our group’s actions.<\/p>\n
Montana has approved the merger but stated if Avista had more than the twenty some customer footprint in Montana, which are largely Avista employees, they would have problems with the agreement.<\/p>\n
Now it stands that since the Hydro One CEO and Board has exited, the process in all these states has stopped.<\/p>\n
Recently, an ACG member who is a public official in Washington State filed for coordination under the Federal government’s National Environmental Policy Act or NEPA.<\/p>\n
NEPA: This process is a long and very expensive\u00a0multi-million dollar process for the\u00a0companies filed against.<\/p>\n
We cannot understand why Hydro One and\u00a0the Province of Ontario would continue forward for this merger. The considerable public opposition here in the US,\u00a0the panoply of government hurdles, and the extensive costs in time and money, would lead a reasonable person to stop pursuit of this merger.<\/p>\n