Transparency alert

Some information in the Nevada Public Utilities Commission docket on the planned Apple/Sierra Pacific solar project in Lyon County has been censored from public view.

One item is concealed under the language “ATTACHMENT A/FILED UNDER CONFIDENTIAL SEAL.”

Testimony by NPUC staffer Paul McGuire is heavily blacked out (see photo). Some of these blackouts appear at tantalizing points, such as a reference to the procedures under which Sierra Pacific could acquire the solar plant built by the computer giant. Lines 17 and 18 read in part, “Staff ran another scenario whereby the option to purchase the solar array after year 6 was executed,”—followed by 13 lines that are blacked out. (A Sept. 9 RN&R article, “Applecart tipping?” was attached to McGuire's testimony as an exhibit.)