Background

On January 6, 2000, the Commission issued an Order Instituting Rulemaking (OIR), R.00-01-005, to look into the implementation of Assembly Bill (AB) 1149, (Aroner) (Stats. 1999, Ch.844). This legislation required the Commission to study ways to amend, revise and improve the rules for the conversion of existing overhead electric and communications lines to underground service and to submit a report to the Legislature. Commissioner Duque, the Assigned Commissioner at the time, submitted his own report to the Legislature in April 2001. The Commission followed with D.01-12-009 in December 2001.

In its Rulemaking the Commission focused on hearing from interested parties and stakeholders through multiple days of workshops conducted by Energy Division (ED) staff, eight Public Participation Hearings (PPH) throughout the state presided over by Commissioner Duque and the assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Carol Brown and numerous rounds of comments and replies to comments.

After almost two years of work by staff and the parties on the Rulemaking, the Commission bifurcated the issues into the non-controversial actions the Commission could address without evidentiary hearings and the controversial areas that would require hearings. The Commission issued D.01-12-009 that proposed reforms to the underground conversion program that could be enacted based on information in the record, and deferred to a Phase 2 those actions or proposed changes that could benefit from evidence, testimony and cross-examination.

D.01-12-009 directed the following reforms: (1) expanding the Rule 20A criteria to include a few more areas within the definition of public interest; (2) allowing Rule 20A funds to be used in combination with Rule 20B funds; (3) allowing cities to mortgage Rule 20A allocations for up to five years; (4) requiring standardized reporting from the utilities; and (5) ordering the creation of an up-dated Undergrounding Planning Guide.

D.01-12-009 also identified some of the issues the Commission anticipated exploring in Phase 2 of the proceeding. Overtaking events in the electric industry required the Commission to manage and control its resources such that Phase 2 of the proceeding was never fully initiated beyond a Prehearing Conference.