BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
Order Instituting Rulemaking on the Commission's Own Motion into Addressing |
FILED PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION NOVEMBER 10, 2011 SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA RULEMAKING 11-11-008 |
ORDER INSTITUTING RULEMAKING INTO ADDRESSING THE COMMISSION'S WATER ACTION PLAN OBJECTIVE OF SETTING RATES THAT BALANCE INVESTMENT, CONSERVATION, AND AFFORDABILITY FOR MULTI-DISTRICT WATER UTILITIES
1. Summary
By this Order Instituting Rulemaking (OIR), the Commission initiates a proceeding to address the Commission's Water Action Plan's policy objective of setting rates that balance investment, conservation, and affordability1 for multi-district water utilities. The Water Action Plan identified six actions for consideration as possible means to advance this objective, several of which have been examined in other proceedings, including the multi-district water utilities' general rate cases.
In this rulemaking, the Commission will consider, on a general policy basis, the development of policies and mechanisms to meet the sixth objective of Water Action Plan either through some variation of a "High-Cost" fund or through consolidating districts and rates within the multi-district water utilities. The Commission will not adopt utility-specific "High-Cost" funds or order any water district consolidations in this proceeding.
1 California Public Utilities Commission December 15, 2005 Water Action Plan, p. 20 and 21, the principle and objective of which remain the same in its 2010 Water Action Plan, p. 7.
