The state’s internal watchdog criticized the Public Utilities Commission, which oversees the energy and communications industries, for being inconsistent and sometimes unprepared in dealings with Minnesotans, particularly on a controversial new $2.6 billion oil pipeline proposed by Enbridge.
The Office of the Legislative Auditor, after looking at the PUC’s handling of public meetings and other forms of outreach over five or so years, issued on Monday a report saying the commission has performed poorly at times.
It said the accessibility of PUC commissioners to the public is varied and that, on some occasions when commissioners held public hearings, the agency sent “mixed messages” about whether they should be addressed.
The auditor’s office made several recommendations, telling the PUC to make its meetings more accessible and reach out to Indian tribes in particular.
In a response published with the report, the PUC said it had been working “diligently” over the past year to correct mistakes in public meetings. It cited a new policy for engagement with tribes, the rebuilding of its website and hiring of more people to manage public outreach.
Many tribal leaders have been high-profile opponents of a new pipeline proposed by Calgary-based Enbridge to replace its aging and corroded Line 3 pipeline across northern Minnesota.
The auditor’s office reviewed the commission’s record of public meetings on the proposal going back to 2015 and found staffers weren’t prepared for meetings that wound up drawing huge crowds.
On some occasions, the commission imposed “special rules” for getting into and participating in those open meetings, creating an inconsistency when it was getting public input on what could become the largest construction project in the state during the next few years.
The commission initially approved the project last year, but was ordered to review it by an appellate court that ruled the PUC didn’t handle the project’s environmental impact statement properly. The PUC later approved a new environmental impact statement and reapproved the rebuilding of the pipeline this past February.
The Minnesota Department of Commerce has also fought the PUC over Enbridge’s Line 3 reconstruction effort, attacking the PUC’s estimates of energy demand and need for the rebuilt pipeline.