4. Public Review and Comment

Under the APA, the Commission may not adopt a regulation which contains language different from that proposed in the Notice and the OIR unless the changes to the regulation are either: (1) nonsubstantial or solely grammatical in nature, or (2) sufficiently related to the original proposal that the public was adequately placed on notice that the change could have resulted from the originally proposed regulation.⁹ A change is nonsubstantial if it clarifies without materially altering the rights, requirements, responsibilities, conditions or prescriptions contained in the original text.¹⁰ A change is sufficiently related to the originally proposed regulation if a reasonable member of the directly affected public could have determined from the Notice that the proposed change could have resulted.¹¹

The changes discussed above were sufficiently related to Rule 14.7 as originally proposed that the public could reasonably have determined that these changes could be made in response to public comments. Rule 14.7, as originally proposed, included section (g), which states that the Commission will not entertain petitions on issues on which it has acted or decided not to act in the past 12 months. Therefore, a reasonable member of the directly affected public could have determined from the Notice that the Commission might amend Rule 14.7(c) to require petitioners to reference any proceedings in which the issue addressed by the petition had previously been raised before the Commission.

As required by Government Code Section 11346.8, we have made this proposed decision and the text of Rule 14.7, as amended, available for public review and comment for 15 days before the adoption of this decision. The decision, including Appendix A, was mailed to the service list on February 24, 2003. We also posted a copy of the proposed decision, including Appendix A, on our website at www.cpuc.ca.gov to give the public additional notice. No comments were received.

Since the Commission has provided for public review and comment on this rulemaking pursuant to the APA, the otherwise applicable 30-day period for public review and comment under our Rules is waived pursuant to Rule 77.7(f)(8).