1 BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF OHIO 2 - - - 3 In the Matter of the : Application for Establishment : 4 of a Reasonable Arrangement : Case No. Between U.S. Steel Seamless : 16-2020-EL-AEC 5 Tubular Operations, LLC, : Lorain Tubular Operations and : 6 The Ohio Edison Company. : 7 8 - - - 9 10 PROCEEDINGS 11 Before Nick Walstra, Attorney Examiner, held at 12 the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, 180 13 East Broad Street, Hearing Room 11-A, Columbus, 14 Ohio, on Tuesday, January 31, 2017, at 11:00 15 A.M. 16 17 - - - 18 19 20 21 22 Armstrong & Okey, Inc. 222 East Town Street, 2nd Floor 23 Columbus, Ohio 43215 (614) 224-9481 - (800) 223-9481 24 Fax - (614) 224-5724 25 - - - ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481 2 1 APPEARANCES: 2 McNees Wallace & Nurick, LLC By Mr. Samuel C. Randazzo 3 21 East State Street, 17th Floor Columbus, Ohio 43215 4 On behalf of U.S. Steel Seamless 5 Tubular Operations, LLC, Lorain Tubular Operations. 6 Ms. Erika Ostrowski 7 76 South Main Street Akron, Ohio 44308 8 On behalf of Ohio Edison Company. 9 Ms. Maureen R. Willis 10 Assistant Consumers' Counsel 10 West Broad Street, Suite 1800 11 Columbus, Ohio 43215 12 On behalf of the Office of the Ohio Consumers' Counsel. 13 Carpenter Lipps & Leland LLP 14 By Ms. Kimberly W. Bojko and 15 Mr. James D. Perko, Jr. 280 Plaza, Suite 1300 16 280 North High Street Columbus, Ohio 43215 17 On behalf of the Ohio Manufacturers' 18 Association Energy Group. 19 Mr. Thomas W. McNamee Assistant Attorney General 20 30 East Broad Street, 16th Floor Columbus, Ohio 43125 21 On behalf of the Staff of the 22 Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. 23 24 25 - - - ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481 3 1 INDEX TO EXHIBITS 2 - - - 3 MARKED ADT 4 JOINT EXHIBITS 5 1 Joint Stipulation and 6 7 6 Recommendation (Public Version) 7 1a Joint Stipulation and 6 7 Recommendation (Confidential) 8 2 Direct Testimony of 6 7 9 Ralph R. Riberich, Jr. 10 11 12 - - - 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481 4 1 Tuesday Morning, 2 January 31, 2017. 3 - - - 4 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: The Public 5 Utilities Commission of Ohio has called for 6 hearing at this time and place Case No. 7 16-2020-EL-AEC, being In the Matter of 8 the Application for Establishment of a 9 Reasonable Arrangement between U.S. Steel 10 Seamless Tubular Operations, LLC, Lorain Tubular 11 Operations and the Ohio Edison Company. 12 My name is Nick Walstra, I am the 13 Attorney Examiner assigned by the Commission to 14 hear this case. We will begin by taking 15 appearances. 16 MR. RANDAZZO: Yes, your Honor. 17 Thank you. First of all I would like to enter 18 the appearance of Erika Ostrowski. She is 19 counsel of record for Ohio Edison Company. Her 20 address is 76 South Main Street, Akron, Ohio 21 44308. 22 And on behalf of U.S. Steel I would 23 like to enter the appearance of McNees Wallace & 24 Nurick by Samuel C. Randazzo, 21 East State 25 Street, 17th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215. ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481 5 1 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Thank you. 2 MR. MCNAMEE: On behalf of the Staff 3 of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, 4 Thomas W. McNamee. The address is 30 East Broad 5 Street, 16th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215. 6 MS. WILLIS: Thank you, your Honor. 7 On behalf of the residential customers of 8 the Ohio Edison Company, Bruce J. Weston, 9 Consumers' Counsel, Maureen R. Willis, 10 West 10 Broad Street, Suite 1800, Columbus, Ohio 43215. 11 Thank you. 12 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Thank you. 13 MR. PERKO: On behalf of the Ohio 14 Manufacturers Association Energy Group, James D. 15 Perko, Jr., and Kimberly W. Bojko, the law firm 16 is Carpenter Lipps & Leland. Address 280 North 17 High Street, Suite 1300, Columbus, Ohio 43215. 18 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Thank you. I 19 understand there was a stipulation filed in this 20 case. 21 MR. RANDAZZO: Yes, your Honor. 22 We filed a settlement in this case with 23 Docketing a while back. So, we are ready to 24 proceed. 25 We have also among the parties been ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481 6 1 able to agree to an expedited process to get 2 supporting testimony submitted into the record. 3 That will come in by agreement of the parties 4 who will all waive cross-examination. 5 I can mark the exhibits, I have 6 three. 7 The public version of the 8 Settlement, which would be Joint Exhibit 1, I 9 would ask that it be marked Joint Exhibit 1 10 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: So marked. 11 (EXHIBIT MARKED FOR IDENTIFICATION) 12 MR. RANDAZZO: The non-public 13 version which I have in an envelope sealed, I 14 would ask that be marked as Joint Exhibit 1 A. 15 And then the prefiled testimony of 16 Ralph Riberich, Jr., I would ask be marked for 17 identification purposes as Joint Exhibit 2. 18 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: So marked. 19 (EXHIBITS MARKED FOR PURPOSES OF 20 IDENTIFICATION) 21 MR. RANDAZZO: And at this point, 22 your Honor, I would offer those exhibits into 23 evidence. As I indicated previously it's my 24 understanding that all the parties agreed to 25 allow these documents to come into evidence and ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481 7 1 to waive cross-examination. 2 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Is that 3 everyone's understanding? Any objections? 4 MR. MCNAMEE: No objections from the 5 Staff, your Honor. 6 MS. WILLIS: No objection. 7 MR. PERKO: No objection. 8 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Thank you. 9 Those will all be admitted. 10 (EXHIBITS HEREBY ADMITTED INTO 11 EVIDENCE) 12 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Anything 13 further? 14 MR. RANDAZZO: Your Honor, I would 15 just like to thank the parties who worked on 16 this for several months. Everybody worked in a 17 problem solving mode, which is refreshing at 18 times. And we were able to get something 19 sensibly done for the benefit of the facility up 20 in Lorain, Ohio. 21 And so as Mr. Riberich indicated in 22 his testimony, very pleased to thank everybody 23 for their hard work. Thank you 24 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: All right. 25 MS. WILLIS: Your Honor, I would ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481 8 1 note for the record that the Office of 2 Consumers' Counsel's position is that we neither 3 support nor oppose the stipulation. And that is 4 fully explained in the letter filed January 5 23rd, 2017 in the docket. 6 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Okay. Thank 7 you. 8 MR. RANDAZZO: I forgot to mention, 9 your Honor, we have submitted a motion for 10 protective order dealing with the confidential 11 portion of the settlement, which is very brief 12 items in the settlement. And just mention that 13 so that it's attended to at the appropriate 14 time. 15 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Okay. Thank 16 you. Anything else? 17 MR. MCNAMEE: Nothing, your Honor. 18 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: All right. The 19 Commission will take it under consideration. 20 And we are adjourned. 21 MR. RANDAZZO: Thank you, your 22 Honor. It's my understanding all the parties 23 waived argument and briefing as well as allowing 24 this expedited process to get the evidence into 25 the record. So I want to state that on the ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481 9 1 record. 2 ATTORNEY EXAMINER: Yes. No 3 briefing. And we will get this out as soon as 4 we can. And thank you guys. 5 MR. RANDAZZO: Thanks again. 6 (At 11:10 A.M. the hearing was 7 concluded) 8 - - - 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481 10 1 CERTIFICATE 2 I do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct transcript of the 3 proceedings taken by me in this matter on January 31, 2017, and carefully compared with my 4 original stenographic notes. 5 __________________________ 6 Michael O. Spencer, Registered Professional 7 Reporter. 8 - - - 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 ARMSTRONG & OKEY, INC., Columbus, Ohio (614)224-9481