Background
Hearings for this proceeding were initially established in the February 26, 2002 Scoping Memo. PG&E subsequently held two settlement conferences to discuss a possible settlement of the application to extend the provisions of the "Gas Accord."2 On May 20, 2002, PG&E and 13 other parties filed the joint motion. A copy of the proposed settlement agreement was attached to the joint motion. On June 4, 2002, PG&E filed a motion to supplement the proposed settlement agreement with the signature pages of four additional parties.3 That motion to supplement was granted in an Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ) ruling dated July 9, 2002.
On May 29, 2002, the ALJ shortened the time for parties to comment on the joint motion and the proposed settlement agreement. Comments were filed by the California Department of General Services (DGS), Calpine Corporation (Calpine), El Paso Natural Gas Company (EPNG), Lodi Gas Storage, L.L.C. (LGS), Northern California Generation Coalition (NCGC), and jointly by Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) and San Diego Gas & Electric Company (SDG&E). Joint reply comments were filed by The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and 17 signatories to the proposed settlement agreement.
2 The "Gas Accord" is the term that was given to describe the settlement regarding the gas structure for PG&E that was adopted by the Commission in Decision (D.) 97-08-055 [73 CPUC2d 754]. The Gas Accord is effective through December 31, 2002. 3 In addition to PG&E, the 16 other signatories to the proposed settlement agreements are: California Cogeneration Council; California Industrial Group and the California Manufacturers & Technology Association; California Utility Buyers JPA; Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers; City of Palo Alto; Coral Energy Resources, L.P., Duke Energy North America and Duke Energy Trading & Marketing, LLC; Dynegy Marketing & Trade; Mirant Americas Inc.; Occidental Energy Marketing, Inc.; Office of Ratepayer Advocates; PG&E National Energy Group; Sacramento Municipal Utility District; School Project for Utility Rate Reduction; Suncor Energy Marketing, Inc.; and TXU Energy Services.
