2. Requirements for Awards of Compensation

The intervenor compensation program, set forth in Pub. Util. Code

§§ 1801-1812,6 requires California jurisdictional utilities to pay the reasonable costs of an intervenor's participation if that party makes a substantial contribution to the Commission's proceedings. The statute provides that the utility may adjust its rates to collect the amount awarded from its ratepayers.

All of the following procedures and criteria must be satisfied for an intervenor to obtain a compensation award:

1. The intervenor must satisfy certain procedural requirements including the filing of a sufficient notice of intent (NOI) to claim compensation within 30 days of the prehearing conference (PHC), pursuant to Rule 17.1 of the Commission's Rules of Practice and Procedure (Rules), or at another appropriate time that we specify. (§ 1804(a).)

2. The intervenor must be a customer or a participant representing consumers, customers, or subscribers of a utility subject to our jurisdiction. (§ 1802(b).)

3. The intervenor must file and serve a request for a compensation award within 60 days of our final order or decision in a hearing or proceeding. (§ 1804(c).)

4. The intervenor must demonstrate "significant financial hardship." (§§ 1802(g) and 1804(b)(1).)

5. The intervenor's presentation must have made a "substantial contribution" to the proceeding, through the adoption, in whole or in part, of the intervenor's contention or recommendations by a Commission order or decision or as otherwise found by the Commission. (§§ 1802(i) and 1803(a).)

6. The claimed fees and costs must be reasonable (§ 1801), necessary for and related to the substantial contribution (D.98-04-059), comparable to the market rates paid to others with comparable training and experience (§ 1806), and productive (D.98-04-059).

In the discussion below, the procedural issues in Items 1-4 above are combined and a separate discussion of Items 5-6 follows.

Under § 1804(a)(1) and Rule 17.1(a)(1), a customer who intends to seek an award of intervenor compensation must file an NOI before certain dates.

The Order Instituting a Rulemaking (OIR) in Proceeding R.07-09-008 was issued on September 20, 2007. CFC filed its NOI on October 30, 2007, the deadline set by the OIR. No ruling of eligibility was ever issued in this case.

In its NOI, CFC asserted financial hardship. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Ruling dated March 7, 2007 in Application 06-09-016 found that CFC met the financial hardship condition pursuant to § 1804(b)(1) through a rebuttable presumption of eligibility. Because the Commission found CFC met this requirement in another proceeding commencing within one year of this proceeding, we apply the same finding of eligibility here.

Section 1802(b)(1) defines a "customer" as: (1) a participant representing consumers, customers or subscribers of a utility; (2) a representative who has been authorized by a customer; or (3) a representative of a group or organization authorized pursuant to its articles of incorporation or bylaws to represent the interests of residential or small business customers. (§ 1802(b)(1)(A) through (C).) CFC is a non-profit federation of several organizations, as well as individual members. Its organizational members include consumer groups, senior citizen groups, labor organizations and other organizations that are composed of California Consumers, all of who are residential customers of California public utilities. CFC takes a broad view of consumer issues, considering the impact of public policy on the quality and cost of goods and services as well as its effects on working Californians, their families and their communities. We affirm here that CFC is a category 3 customer, pursuant to

§ 1802 (c)(1) as a "group or organization authorized pursuant to its articles of incorporation or bylaws to represent the interest of residential ratepayers." CFC has submitted in many proceedings its authorization in its articles of incorporation to represent residential customers, and have had no changes in the articles of incorporation since last submission.

Regarding the timeliness of the request for compensation, CFC filed its request for compensation on January 12, 2009, within 60 days of D.08-11-060 being issued.7 No party opposed the request.

6 All subsequent statutory references are to the Public Utilities Code unless otherwise indicated.

7 D.08-11-060 was issued on December 3, 2008.

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