II. Procedural Background
The utilities filed applications on June 1, 2005. In its limited protest filed July 7, 2005, the Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) requested the opportunity to file second-round comments and replies during September 2005. The purpose was to provide ORA with an opportunity to complete its discovery of information related to the applications and offer any observations it might have about fund allocations and other matters. In a ruling issued July 14, 2005, the assigned administrative law judge (ALJ) consolidated the various utility applications in the same docket with the Commission's low income rulemaking proceeding, and established a deadline of September 9, 2005 for comments and September 23, 2005 for reply comments.
On May 2, 2005, the Low Income Energy Efficiency Standardization Team filed and served a document entitled Report on the Assessment of Proposed New Program Year 2006 Low Income Energy Efficiency Program Measures.2 In a ruling dated September 1, 2005, the ALJ provided an opportunity for parties to comment on this report. Opening comments were due no later than September 16, 2005, with reply comments due one week later, on September 23, 2005.
Greenlining Institute filed comments on September 9, 2005. ORA presented late-filed comments on September 13, 2005. SCE, SDG&E, and SoCalGas each filed reply comments on September 23, 2005.
In the meantime, the Commission scheduled a Full Panel Hearing on October 6, 2005 to consider the impact of expected high winter natural gas prices on low income customers. In anticipation of this hearing, the ALJ directed the utilities and invited others to file proposals for presentation on October 6, 2005. Many did so, on September 28, 2005, or soon thereafter. What followed were several rounds of proposals and comments, resulting in D.05-10-044, adopted by the Commission on October 27, 2005. That decision ordered the following changes to the CARE and Low Income Energy Efficiency Programs that could not have been anticipated by the utilities when they filed the applications that are the subject of this decision:
1. CARE rates are now available to all customers with incomes between 175% and 200% of the Federal poverty guideline levels. When the applications were filed, eligibility ended at 175% of the poverty guidelines.
2. The same expanded income eligibility criteria now apply to both CARE and Low Income Energy Efficiency Program participants. Currently, Low Income Energy Efficiency Program participants are limited to those with 175% of the poverty guidelines, with the exception of elderly and disabled, who must be within 200% of the poverty guidelines.
3. CARE customers may now enroll and recertify by telephone.
4. No CARE customers can be dropped from the program during the coming winter months for failure to recertify their income eligibility.
5. The Commission simplified Low Income Energy Efficiency Program enrollment in several ways, to help speed up the provision of services this winter.
6. The Commission authorized the utilities to accelerate the replacement of gas forced-air furnaces, leaky or broken gas water heaters, and inefficient refrigerators and light bulbs for low income customers this winter.
7. The Commission directed the utilities to take various steps to increase and improve outreach efforts related to high winter bills, CARE, Medical Baseline, and the Low Income Energy Efficiency Program.
2 The Standardization Team consists of representatives of each of the utilities that are the subject of this order. Its purpose was described in an Assigned Commissioner's Ruling in R.98-07-037, dated December 29, 1999, and ratified by the full Commission in D.00-07-020.
