Connecticut regulators have denied the requests from eight companies to keep secret their information in a 21-year, $1 billion state renewable energy credit program, but pushed back the release of that information until next week.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in July reversed its position on the Zero-emissions/Low-emissions Renewable Energy Credit program, or ZREC/LREC, saying information about the bids from participating companies should be release to the public, including the name of the company, the location of their planned renewable energy project, and how much they were asked for in ZRECs or LRECs. PURA’s reversal came after Hartford Business Journal filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the information that regulators previously ruled was secret.
Eight companies filed for protective orders, trying to keep their information secret. They argued the information was proprietary and therefore not subject to public disclosure laws. The eight companies were Venti Wind of Austin, Texas; The Hartford Steam Co.; Solar City of San Mateo, Calif.; Soltage of Jersey City, N.J.; SunEdison of Beltsville, Md.; Solar Star Connecticut of San Jose, Calif.; SunPower Corp. of San Jose, Calif.; and GP Renewables & Trading of New York City.
Because of the time it took PURA to rule on the protective orders, the release of the information was pushed back to Aug. 23. Previously, the release was scheduled for Wednesday.
Read HBJ’s story from the Aug. 12 print edition about these protective order requests.
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