2. Background
On November 1, 2011, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) filed Application (A.) 11-11-001 requesting authorization to: issue up to $4.75 billion of new debt securities and new preferred or preference stock; enter into various enhancement features; encumber utility property; guarantee obligations of regulated affiliates or regulated subsidiaries, and governmental entities; be exempted from selected portions of the Competitive Bidding Rule (CBR); and to report, pursuant to General Order (GO) 24-B, on a quarterly instead of a monthly basis. On December 12 and 13, 2011, the assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) issued rulings via electronic mail (e-mail), requesting further information from PG&E. PG&E responded to these rulings on December 29, 2011.
On December 29, 2011, PG&E filed a motion requesting authority to file and maintain selected information provided by it in response to the assigned ALJ's ruling, as confidential information under seal, pursuant to Public Utilities (Pub. Util.) Code § 5831 and GO 66-C.2 In particular, PG&E requests that Attachment A, Schedule DR1-Q1 and Attachment C, DR3-Schedules I and II, to its December 29, 2011 responses, which include information regarding PG&E's forecasted cash flow analysis, be filed and maintained as confidential. PG&E claims that these responses contain forward-looking statements subject to change and constitute material, non-public information. No protests to PG&E's motion were filed. We find that PG&E's motion for confidential treatment complies with the requirements of Pub. Util. Code §583 and GO 66-C, by providing information requested by the Commission not required to be open to public inspection. We therefore grant PG&E's motion to treat Attachment A, Schedule DR1-Q1 and Attachment C, DR3-Schedules I and II, to its December 29, 2011 responses, as confidential.
1 http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/waisgate?WAISdocID=3081588023+2+0+0&WAISaction=retrieve. Pub. Util. Code § 583 in part states "No information furnished to the commission by a public utility, or any business which is a subsidiary or affiliate of a public utility, or a corporation which holds a controlling interest in a public utility, except those matters specifically required to be open to public inspection by this part, shall be open to public inspection or made public except on order of the commission, or by the commission or a commissioner in the course of a hearing or proceeding."
2 http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/Published/Graphics/644.pdf. Section 2.2.b. of GO 66-C states "Reports, records, and information requested or required by the Commission which, if revealed, would place the regulated company at an unfair business disadvantage."
