Procedural Issues

NOI

Section 1804(a) requires that a customer who intends to seek intervenor compensation shall file a NOI to claim compensation within 30 days after the prehearing conference is held, or, when a prehearing conference is not held, according to the procedure specified by the Commission.

In this matter, no prehearing conference was held before the Commission acted upon Greenlining's petition by issuing the rulemaking. The Commission held a prehearing conference in the rulemaking on June 23, 2003. Greenlining did not file a NOI in either the petition or the rulemaking.

Generally, the failure of an intervenor to file an NOI would be fatal to its claim for intervenor compensation. Although we occasionally excused lateness or even omission of an NOI filing, we have also placed great importance on the NOI as a tool to ensure intervenor accountability. (See D.98-04-059, 79 CPUC2d 628.) Since the issuance of D.98-04-059, we have held intervenor to the statutory NOI filing standard unless exceptional circumstances are present and have denied compensation if the intervenor fails to comply with the statute.

In this case, however, Greenlining filed the petition requesting the Commission to amend a regulation by instituting a rulemaking. If Greenlining had not filed the petition, there would not have been the rulemaking. Because § 1708.5 is a relatively new statue, taking effect on January 1, 2000, intervenors have not had much experience in determining the appropriate time to file an NOI in § 1708.5 proceedings. Therefore, solely for this proceeding, we determine that Greenlining's petition filed pursuant to § 1708.5 serves in substance as its NOI with respect to P.02-10-035 and R.03-02-035. This holding is limited to this case only and shall not serve as precedent for future intervenors filing a §1708.5 petition.

In the future, when the Commission acts on a § 1708.5 petition, we will provide direction to potential claimants regarding the timeframe for filing NOIs. However, in the absence of any direction, if a rulemaking issues in response to a petition, and a prehearing conference is then held, potential intervenors must file the NOIs no later than 30 days after the prehearing conference. (See § 1804(a).)