4. The Pipeline Projects

This proceeding is fundamentally about PG&E's access to prolific and growing natural gas supplies in the Rocky Mountains. The parties to this proceeding have presented two alternatives for obtaining firm access to Rocky Mountain gas supplies. One alternative is the proposed Ruby Pipeline sponsored by El Paso. The second alternative is the proposed Sunstone Pipeline (Sunstone), which is a joint venture sponsored by TransCanada Pipelines Ltd. (TransCanada) and Williams. Sempra Pipelines & Storage has an option to acquire a 25% equity interest in Sunstone. If built, Sunstone would transport gas from Opal, Wyoming to an interconnection with GTN's existing pipeline system at Stanfield, Oregon. The delivery capacity of Sunstone would be 1.2 Bcf/d. Sunstone shippers could then use the exiting GTN system to transport gas south to Malin, Oregon. The distance of the Opal-Sunstone-GTN-Malin route is approximately 900 miles.

GTN is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TransCanada. The GTN system transports gas from Kingsgate, British Columbia at the Canada-United States border to Malin, Oregon. The gas carried by GTN originates mostly in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin that is located largely in the Canadian Provence of Alberta.

GTN interconnects with PG&E's backbone gas transportation system at Malin, Oregon. Gas delivered at Malin is transported into Northern California via PG&E's Redwood Path pipeline. Currently, GTN's delivery capacity at Malin is evenly matched with PG&E's receipt capacity of 2.1 Bcf/d.

The proposed Ruby Pipeline would also interconnect with PG&E's system at Malin, creating a total delivery capacity at Malin of between 3.4 and 3.6 Bcf/d. PG&E's receipt capacity would remain unchanged at 2.1 Bcf/d. Thus, the construction of the Ruby Pipeline would create a surplus of delivery capacity at Malin into PG&E's Redwood Path.

A map of the GTN, Sunstone, Ruby, and Redwood Path pipelines is shown on the next page.