We Energies wants rate hike to cover legal fees

We Energies' latest rate hike request includes more than $34 million in legal fees it wants customers to fund.

The state Public Service Commission will consider the Milwaukee-based utility's $242 million rate hike in the coming weeks. It would amount to about $5 more for the average residential customers beginning in January and another $3 in 2014.

We Energies serves southeastern Wisconsin, a portion of Northeastern Wisconsin west of Green Bay and a portion of far Northeastern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan.

The legal fees include $13 million the utility spent fighting the federal government after it failed to open a nuclear waste disposal site in Nevada.

We Energies says the legal fees should be viewed in context and that because it won the case, electrical rates didn't increase this year.