A Canadian regulatory proceeding on a major pipeline has 4000 intervenors. (No typo; there are three zeros in that figure. And this is the technical hearing, not the non-technical hearing.)
U.S. commissioners spend time "on the road," hearing from the public in official, but non-evidentiary, hearings. It's worth asking two questions: What is the specific value of non-evidentiary hearings? And is there tension between that specific value and current legal reality?
