ALJ/SRT/hkr Date of Issuance 7/11/2008

Decision 08-07-019 July 10, 2008

BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Application of PACIFICORP (U 901 E), an Oregon Company, for Permit to Construct the Line 75 115kV Conversion Project Pursuant to General Order 131-D.	Application 05-12-011 (Filed December 13, 2005)
Application of PACIFICORP (U 901 E), an Oregon Company, for Permit to Construct the Weed Segment Project Pursuant to General Order 131-D.	Application 07-01-046 (Filed January 26, 2007)

DECISION GRANTING INTERVENOR COMPENSATION
TO DON AND JUDY MACKINTOSH

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

DECISION GRANTING INTERVENOR COMPENSATION
TO DON AND JUDY MACKINTOSH 22

1. Background 22

2. Requirements on Awards of Compensation 33

3. Procedural Issues 44

3.1. NOI 44

3.2. Customer Status 55

3.3. Significant Financial Hardship 88

3.4. Request for Compensation 99

4. Substantial Contribution 1010

5. Reasonableness of Requested Compensation 1414

6. Hours and Costs Related to and Necessary for Substantial Contribution 1515

6.1. Flat 5% Administrative Fee 1616

6.2. Self-Interested Efforts 1616

6.3. Intervenor Compensation Matters 1717

6.4. Miscellaneous Items 1717

6.5. Large Number of Attorneys Used on Proceeding 1818

6.6. Mackintosh Request for $6,000 1919

6.7. Well Data 2020

7. Hourly Rates 2020

7.1. Sky Woodruff 2121

7.2. Amrit S. Kulkarni 2121

7.3. Kyle La Londe 2222

7.4. Steven D. Berninger 2222

7.5. Brian F. Crossman 2323

7.6. Chrystal B. James 2323

7.7. Paralegal Hammond East 2424

7.8. Expert William Stephenson 2424

7.9. Expert Richard Renouf 2525

8. Productivity 2626

9. Direct Expenses 2626

10. Award 2727

11. Comments on Proposed Decision 2929

12. Assignment of Proceeding 3030

Findings of Fact 3030

Conclusions of Law 3131

ORDER 3232

APPENDIX Compensation Decision Summary Information

DECISION GRANTING INTERVENOR COMPENSATION
TO DON AND JUDY MACKINTOSH

This decision grants the request of Don and Judy Mackintosh (the Mackintoshes) for intervenor compensation for their claimed contribution to Decision (D.) 07-03-043 and D.06-10-047. While the Mackintoshes request $267,600.78¹ in compensation, for various reasons set forth herein we reduce that amount by $53,258.68, and award $214,342.10. In particular, we have reduced the award to disallow any expenditure that benefited the Mackintoshes alone without causing benefits to the community at large.

We find that the Mackintoshes are eligible for compensation. Their actions in seeking to have the transmission line follow the existing right-of-way benefited residents of the Weed area, and the environment in general. We also find that the Mackintoshes made a substantial contribution to our decisions in this proceeding.

1. Background

In this proceeding, PacifiCorp sought permission to install an electric transmission line and related substation upgrades in the Yreka-Weed area of Northern California. Decision (D.) 06-10-047 and D.07-03-043, respectively, approved installation of a portion of the line, and required preparation of an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to evaluate the impact of the remaining portion of the line. The Commission has since prepared the EIR and approved the remaining portion of the line in D.07-12-018; the Mackintoshes seek compensation for their work on D.07-12-018 in a separate request which we do not address here.

PacifiCorp raises several challenges to the compensation request. The key objection is that the Mackintoshes acted only out of self-interest in participating in this proceeding, and thus should receive no compensation. We disagree. PacifiCorp also claims that the Mackintoshes' notice of intent (NOI) to seek compensation was untimely filed, a claim with which we disagree, and seeks reductions in the amount of compensation for various reasons. We make several of the requested reductions as well as several of our own.

¹ This amount was miscalculated. We explain and correct it below.