II. Background
On January 21, 1998, the Commission issued an Order Instituting Rulemaking opening Rulemaking (R.) 98-01-011 to assess the market and regulatory framework of California's natural gas industry and to consider reforms that might foster competition and benefit all California natural gas consumers. In D.99-07-015, on July 8, 1999, the Commission identified the most promising options for changes to the regulatory and market structure of the natural gas industry. The Order Instituting Investigation herein issued the same day, designating this as a ratesetting case appropriate for hearing. That order asked parties to prepare more detailed analyses of the costs and benefits of the promising options,2 but allowed a short hiatus for exploring the possibility of settlement before prepared testimony was due. At the first prehearing conference in this case, on September 1, 1999, an extension of time was granted for the submission of testimony in order to facilitate settlement.3
Meanwhile, the Legislature enacted AB 1421 in 1999, repealing the former Pub. Util. Code § 328,4 which had arrested the Commission in its restructuring program until January 1, 2000. In its place the Legislature substituted statutes clarifying its intent that the utilities continue to serve the core with bundled services.5
Ultimately, on January 28, 2000, the attached Settlement Agreement was filed, with declarations regarding the public interest supporting adoption of the Settlement Agreement. The Settlement Parties, in the Joint Motion for Approval of Comprehensive PG&E Settlement Agreement, stated that all parties to the cases underlying the Gas Accord Decision (D.97-08-055) had been served with a copy of the settlement proposal and that no party would object to the changes made in the procedures embodied in D.97-08-055 as a result of the tendered comprehensive settlement.6
The time for comment on the Settlement Agreement was shortened in a ruling issued February 8, 2000. In the same ruling, the time was shortened for any request for hearing based on the likelihood that the Settlement Agreement would alter D.97-08-055. No comments were filed nor was any request for hearing received. On February 24, 2000, an informal panel was convened to answer the questions of the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and Energy Division staff regarding the Settlement Agreement. Subsequently, on March 15, 2000, PG&E filed a document entitled "Clarification of Responses by Pacific Gas and Electric Company to Questions Propounded at the February 24, 2000 Informational Hearing."
2 We also incorporated the entire record from R.98-01-011 into the record for this proceeding. 3 Since that time, two further extensions were granted regarding PG&E's system, and a third granted with regard to the natural gas industry in the southern part of the state. 4 All statutory references are to the Pub. Util. Code, unless otherwise noted. 5 Section 328. Legislative Findings. The Legislature finds and declares both of the following:- (a) In order to ensure that all core customers of a gas corporation continue to receive safe basic gas service in a competitive market, each existing gas corporation should continue to provide this essential service.
(b) No customer should have to pay separate fees for utilizing services that protect public or customer safety.
- (a) "Basic gas service" includes transmission, storage for reliability of service, and distribution of natural gas, purchasing natural gas on behalf of a customer, revenue cycle services, and after-meter services.
(b) "Revenue cycle services" means metering services, billing the customer, collection, and related customer services.
(c) "After-meter services" includes, but is not limited to, leak investigation, inspecting customer piping and appliances, carbon monoxide investigation, pilot relighting, and high bill investigation.
(d) "Metering services" includes, but is not limited to, gas meter installation, meter maintenance, meter testing, collecting and processing consumption data, and all related services associated with the meter.
Section 328.2. Required Gas Service.
The commission shall require each gas corporation to provide bundled basic gas service to all core customers in its service territory unless the customer chooses or contracts to have natural gas purchased and supplied by another entity. A public utility gas corporation shall continue to be the exclusive provider of revenue cycle services to all customers in its service territory, except that an entity purchasing and supplying natural gas under the commission's existing core aggregation program may perform billing and collection services for its customers under the same terms as currently authorized by the commission, and except that a supplier of natural gas to noncore customers may perform billing and collection for natural gas supply for its customers. The gas corporation shall continue to calculate its charges for services provided by that corporation. If the commission establishes credits to be provided by the gas corporation to core aggregation or noncore customers who obtain billing or collection services from entities other than the gas corporation, the credit shall be equal to the billing and collection services costs actually avoided by the gas corporation. The commission shall require the distribution rate to continue to include after-meter services.
