2. Background

SCE originally filed its "Expedited Petition" for modification of D.88-07-069, D.98-02-104, D.00-10-040, and D.00-10-063 on January 25, 2001. In that petition, SCE requested, among other things, that the Competitive Bidding Rule exemptions contained in those decisions be revised to additionally include domestic underwritten public offerings of fixed interest rate bonds and debentures exceeding $200 million in principal amount.

After requesting and receiving additional information from SCE, we issued D.02-01-061, which modified D.00-10-040 by authorizing SCE to issue $3.5 billion of debt to finance its Procurement-Related Obligations Account (PROACT). In our decision, among other things, we granted SCE's request for exemption from the Commission's Competitive Bidding Rule for debt issues in excess of $200 million.

On January 8, 2002, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Evans issued a ruling in these proceedings requiring SCE to submit additional information supporting its request for exemptions from the Commission's Competitive Bidding Rule in its various applications for financing authority. SCE provided that information on January 28, 2002.

To clarify the record, SCE filed an Amended Expedited Petition on March 8, 2002 to provide information regarding the remaining amounts of financing authorization included in D.88-07-069, D.98-02-104, and D.00-10-063. SCE believes this "new" information may be useful to the Commission in considering SCE's request for Competitive Bidding Rule exemptions.

In addition, in its Amended Expedited Petition, SCE seeks to withdraw that portion of the original petition, which asked for modification of D.00-10-040, as to the Competitive Bidding Rule, because the relief sought was included in D.02-01-061, our PROACT decision. In its amended petition, SCE also seeks withdrawal of that portion of the original petition, which asked for modification of D.98-02-104, as to the Competitive Bidding Rule, because the remaining authorized amount under that decision is now less than the $200 million benchmark.

On October 1, 2002, the ALJ issued another ruling requiring SCE to further update the record and to provide the Commission more information related to these proceedings, the competitive bidding process and to determine whether, and to what extent, Edison should be exempted from the Competitive Bidding Rule. We asked a series of seven (7) questions. Edison provided its response on October 17, 2002, with its latest Amended Expedited Petition.