4. Contribution to Resolution of Issues

A party may make a substantial contribution to a decision in one of several ways.³ It may offer a factual or legal contention upon which the Commission relied in making a decision.⁴ Or it may advance a specific policy or procedural recommendation that the Administrative Law Judge or Commission adopted.⁵ A substantial contribution includes evidence or argument that supports part of the decision even if the Commission does not adopt a party's position in total.⁶ The Commission has provided compensation even when the position advanced by the intervenor is rejected.⁷

According to TURN, its work in this case far exceeds the standard for a substantial contribution. TURN was completely successful in gaining the adoption of its recommendation to deny the petition. TURN achieved this result through efficient, targeted participation that supplemented and complemented the work of other parties, most notably ORA. The themes of TURN's presentations - that Pacific and GTEC had previously opposed the true-up they were requesting in the petition; that Commission and party resources should be devoted to shaping the future, not relitigating the past; that it would be impossible to distinguish the effects of forecasting error from other effects; and that explosive demand for services had rendered the utilities' claims of financial hardship moot-were reflected either in the decision, the concurrence of Commissioner Knight, or in the Commissioners' remarks at the February 19, 1997 meeting. According to TURN, its work was an integral part in preventing the alternate decision of Commissioners Conlon and Neeper -- which would have reopened the IRD proceeding - from becoming a majority decision. Through the expenditure of less than 40 hours of time, TURN was able to assist in defeating large permanent rate increases (3.75% and 5.94% for Pacific and GTEC respectively) that would have cost ratepayers billions of dollars over future years.

We agree that TURN made a substantial contribution to D.97-02-049 in the areas it identifies. We adopted TURN's proposal to deny Pacific and GTEC's Petition, and therefore benefited from TURN's policy discussion of the issues involved.