The PSC is under a court order to conduct an investigation and present its findings before it can act on the merits of the Primergy merger. The court order was obtained January 23 from a Dane County judge in response to affidavits submitted by Mark Williamson, a Madison Gas & Electric executive, and Scott Neitzel, a former PSC Commissioner who left last September and is now a consultant to MG&E.

 These affidavits alleged that Commissioner Eastman's mind was made up in favor of the Primergy merger long before hearings had begun and that Eastman and WEPCO had been engaging in ex parte communications regarding the merger.  Joining MG&E on the motion securing the court order were RENEW Wisconsin, Wisconsin's Environmental Decade, Citizens Utility Board, Madison Gas & Electric, the Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives, and the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group.

 All of the aforementioned parties oppose the Primergy merger. Opponents are concerned that Primergy, through its control of a vast transmission system stretching from the Dakotas and Canada east to the Illinois border, would be in position to thwart competition by manipulating energy shipments to favor their own power plants. If the merger is approved, Primergy would become the 10th largest electric utility in the United States, controlling more than half the retail load in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

 RENEW and Wisconsin's Environmental Decade sponsored testimony in the PSC hearings as part of a regional coalition of environmental organizations. The testimony contended that merger approval would allow Primergy to sell more electricity from their dirtiest coal-fired plants. Witnesses for the environmental organizations recommended that the PSC should, if it approves the merger, impose conditions to ensure that harmful air emissions do not rise above present levels.