Lake Michigan Improvements Worth The Small Cost In Utility Rates

The Journal Sentinel editorially hits the nail on the head: The state Public Service Commission should not, as some commissioners have signalled, reject that piece of a pending We Energies' rate increase that implements environmental improvements approved in a settlement between the company and statewide environmental organizations.

An agreement is an agreement is an agreement, especially one that settled legal challenges that could legitimately have delayed the Oak Creek power plant construction.

And that will improve the quality of Lake Michigan - - a worthy outcome that cannot be measured in dollars and cents alone.

I suspect that the PSC may have felt that the settlement boxed them in and took away some of their power to be fully in charge of rate-setting, and thus utility and public policy-making.

But let's not let bureaucratic territoriality trump decision-making that produced a deal all parties approved.