3. Discussion

Section 854 requires Commission authorization before a company may "merge, acquire, or control...any public utility organized and doing business in this state...." The purpose of Section 854 and related statutes is to enable the Commission, before any transfer of a public utility is consummated, to review the situation and to take such action, as a condition of the transfer, as the public interest may require.³ Under Section 854, the Commission has broad discretion as to whether to approve a transfer of control under Section 854.

Here, as a result of the reorganization, Pacific will be directly owned by Plains, the entity within Plains All American which has overall responsibility for businesses that provide terminaling and storage services, such as those provided by Pacific. The transfer of Pacific to the Plains group of entities, and away from PEG, which no longer has any role in the management or operation of Pacific, is logical, and will promote the efficiency of Pacific, Plains, and Plains All American.

In addition, since both the ultimate management and local management and employees of Pacific will remain the same, and Pacific will continue to serve California customers on the same basis as before the reorganization, the reorganization will be transparent to customers. The reorganization will not adversely impact California customers served by Pacific or the public interest.

For all of the foregoing reasons, we find that the proposed reorganization is in the public interest and approve the reorganization and the transfer of ownership and control of Pacific to Plains pursuant to Section 854.

We also approve the Pacific's proposed name change to "Plains West Coast Terminals LLC," which will reflect its new ownership by Plains. We direct Pacific to file an advice letter with the Commission Energy Division in order to resubmit Pacific's approved tariffs under its new business name.

³ San Jose Water Co., 10 CRC 56 (1916).