The recommended approach would eliminate the existing redundancy in the transmission need assessment. It would accomplish this by having the CAISO responsible for assessing whether a project is needed for reliability and economic reasons, and the CPUC responsible for reviewing the application of the approved economic methodology to affirm project need as required by law, conducting CEQA review, and implementing overall comprehensive planning through the IOU's long-term plans. The Commission is not proposing any changes to the CEQA process.

This approach to transmission planning is an improvement over historic processes and practices for several key reasons: 1) the ISO planning process allows for public participation and discussion of alternatives before the IOU has selected a project and submitted it to the CPUC for approval; 2) the ISO facilitates a more comprehensive approach to grid-wide planning as opposed to control area by control area planning; and 3) the ISO is able to analyze and capture a wider range of factors that impact the economics of a particular project (e.g. the ISO is able to incorporate changes to adjoining control areas transmission facilities that impact the benefits that accrue to a particular project). This revised transmission planning approach also has the advantage of leveraging existing expertise at the CAISO and the Commission.