III. Discussion

Pursuant to Pub. Util. Code § 1708, the Commission "may at any time, upon notice to the parties, and with opportunity to be heard . . . . " With regard to proceedings without evidentiary hearings, Pub.Util. Code § 1708.5 provides that "the commission may conduct any proceeding to adopt, amend, or repeal a regulation using notice and comment rulemaking procedures, without an evidentiary hearing, except with respect to a regulation being amended or repealed that was adopted after an evidentiary hearing, in which case the parties to the original proceeding shall retain any right to an evidentiary hearing accorded by § 1708." Here, the Commission used notice and comment procedures rather than evidentiary hearings to adopt D.00-07-018. Accordingly, we will use notice and comment procedures as well to consider altering this decision.

Specifically, we propose to amend D.00-07-018 in the following respects with deletions noted by strikethroughs:

1. Conclusion of Law 5: The public interest requires that water utilities have a means of obtaining Commission review and approval prior to entering into new active non-tariffed endeavor.




Rationale: The word "active" suggests that "passive" endeavors do not require prior Commission approval. This clarifies that all non-tariffed offerings by a water utility are subject to prior Commission approval.




2. Ordering Paragraph 2: Any water utility which proposes to engage in a sale of non-tariffed goods or services provided, in whole or in part, by assets or employees reflected in the utility's revenue requirement, which would be proposed to be classified as active as described herein, shall file an advice letter seeking Commission approval, except for those activities designated as active in attachment A.




Rationale: As discussed above, the text of the decision demonstrates an intention to have all water utility non-tariffed offerings submitted for Commission approval. No exemptions of any kind are provided for in the text of the decision. This change to the Ordering Paragraph brings the paragraph into conformity with the text.