4. Conclusion

As discussed earlier, the DCA provides numerous public interest benefits. To begin, Imperial County would benefit from Citizens' commitment to provide funding for 30 years, at an estimated $1 million per year, to low-income assistance programs for county residents. These same Imperial County residents will also benefit from the employment opportunities and increased tax base Citizens' participation will bring. Next, approval of the DCA would facilitate Citizens' operations as a transmission owner, thereby potentially enhancing its viability as a new competitor in transmission development. In addition, development of this line alleviates a transmission bottleneck and facilitates delivery of renewable energy to southern California. As an additional factor supporting the DCA, we have determined that the DCA provides several protections against adverse public impacts. Most significantly, there would be no adverse impact on the transmission service provided by the Sunrise project since the DCA provides for Citizens to transfer operational control of its interest in the Border-East Line to the CAISO. In addition, there are several consumer protections built into the DCA, including the payment of a levelized 30-year rate that is capped to protect ratepayers from market fluctuations.

While it is possible that all California electric customers will pay more for the CAISO transmission charge, and the range is 0.6 to 5.8 as the potential estimated increased charge, when this amount is balanced against the de minimus cost to an actual ratepayer, and the other public interest benefits are considered─including the estimated $1 million per year to assist the needy of Imperial County with their electric bills─we find that it is in the public interest to authorize the Citizens' lease with SDG&E.

Applying the standard for review of Section 851 applications, discussed at length above and set forth by the Commission in D.09-07-035, the minimal standard of review is that a proposed transaction must not be adverse to the public interest. While we are mindful that the public interest also encompasses ratepayer interests, and we have recognized that there could be higher rates for all electricity customers in California under the Citizens' lease, we find that in the over-all balance between approving the Citizens' lease and denying it, we find that there are sufficient public interest benefits to support approving the DCA.

Accordingly, the application must be approved.