COM/HMD/lmc Item H-20a

6/28/2001

Decision DRAFT ALTERNATE DECISION OF COMMISSIONER DUQUE (Mailed 6/14/2001)

BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Application of SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS COMPANY for Authority Pursuant to Public Utilities Code Section 851 to Sell Certain Intellectual Property Known as Energy Marketplace.

Application 99-10-036 (Filed October 27, 1999)

O P I N I O N

1. Summary

We impose penalties of $300,000 on Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) for violating a Commission order and Commission Rules in connection with its offering of electric choice programs on an Internet website known as Energy Marketplace. The website, since sold to Excelergy Corporation,¹ assertedly facilitated customer choice of energy providers through web-based links to such providers, sign-up forms and the like. Decision (D.) 99-02-059, issued on February 18, 1999, authorized SoCalGas to use the website to facilitate choice in core gas aggregation services, but required further Commission approval for other uses of the website, including those offered to facilitate electric choice. Rather than obtain this approval and remove the already-existing electric platform from the site until it had such approval, SoCalGas left the electric platform on the website for more than a year.

While there are mitigating factors that lessen the amount of the penalty, as described below, SoCalGas was clearly operating without Commission approval. Such conduct warrants penalties.