Findings of Fact

1. Reverse auctions may not result in the lowest cost construction contracts, especially in cases where market competition is limited and where projects are complex and have specialized techniques or technologies.

2. Reverse auctions may motivate bidders to emphasize project price over other essential project elements, such as safety or quality of workmanship.

3. Ratepayers are likely to benefit from a prohibition on reverse auctions.

4. Prevailing wages promote a well-trained and stable workforce which in turn promote more reliable utility services and infrastructure, and more efficiently-managed utility construction projects.

5. There is no evidence to suggest that prevailing wages would necessarily increase project costs or utility rates.

6. Requiring respondent utilities to pay prevailing wages would not require any enforcement or compliance actions by the state that would be in addition to those already in place.

7. There is no evidence to suggest that requiring utilities and their contractors to pay prevailing wages for construction projects would harm ratepayers, although such a requirement may provide benefits to ratepayers.

8. The specific circumstances under which we might require PLAs are unclear on this record.