ALJ/MEG/hkr Mailed 8/23/2002

Decision 02-08-051 August 22, 2002

BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Order Instituting Rulemaking on the Commission's Proposed Policies and Programs Governing Low-Income Assistance Programs.

Rulemaking 01-08-027 (Filed August 23, 2001)

INTERIM OPINION: LOW-INCOME ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS
FOR ALPINE, MOUNTAIN UTILITIES, AND WEST COAST GAS

1. Summary

By today's decision we direct Alpine Natural Gas Company (Alpine Natural Gas) and West Coast Gas Company (West Coast Gas) to augment their California Alternate Rates For Energy (CARE) outreach activities. We allocate funding from Senate Bill (SB) X1 5 for this purpose. We also direct these utilities to file post-2002 low-income assistance program plans and budgets by November 1, 2002 and to develop Low Income Energy Efficiency (LIEE) programs that are appropriate to the needs of their low-income customers. As discussed in this decision, such programs may consist of referral services to community-based organizations or local agencies who provide programs similar to LIEE in or near these service areas. They are to be designed in a manner that is compatible with the size and resources of these very small utilities.

Given the unique resort nature of Mountain Utilities service territory, housing stock and customer base, we find that this small utility most likely does not have any customers that would qualify for a CARE or LIEE program either now or in the near future. Therefore, we do not require Mountain Utilities to initiate low-income assistance programs at this time. However, we will continue to monitor the economic demographics of Mountain Utilities, using updated census information as it becomes available, to consider whether this utility should be required to initiate a low-income program in the future.