Court Opinion

ID: 9644572
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:59:45.995596+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:15.339770
License: Public Domain

Judith Rogers, Judge, concurring. I feel compelled to address the Attorney General’s failure to review the protected material at issue in this case. The Commission in its order clearly acknowledged the Attorney General’s right to review the material, yet the Attorney General, who is charged with representing and disseminating information to rate payers and advocating the lowest reasonable utility rates pursuant to Ark. Code Ann. § 23-4-305 (1987), just as clearly chose not to review that material. He also chose not to carefully peruse this data and decide which material should be made available to the public. It is conceivable that if all parties had reviewed this material, the Commission would have been aided in a more effective review and in making specific findings, and that the reversal of this appeal could have been avoided by the Attorney General taking this simple interim step. I wish to make it clear that I recognize the difficulty that would be inherent in trying to separate the merits of a public utility appeal, such as this one, from the political climate from which the appeal may come. Nevertheless, courts are an inappropriate arena for solving most of these problems and it would be less costly and more efficient if we could address cases solely on their legal merits. I must also point out that, although I agree with the majority that this Court cannot perform its reviewing function in the absence of adequate and complete findings by the Commission, remand of this appeal is a futile gesture. After undisputed evidence was presented to it, the Commission granted the protective order. The Commission then heard additional testimony before it denied the Attorney General’s request to lift the protective order. Therefore, it cannot be argued that the Commission entered the protective order arbitrarily without any evidentiary foundation. The issue before this Court is not one in which we need detailed factual findings in order to be able to determine how the Commission arrived at its ruling. Rather, the finding needed here is whether the Commission found the evidence supported the entry of the protective order. The fact that the Commission did not articulate its findings does not diminish the order’s clear implication that the Commission found such evidence to exist.