VII. Confidentiality

At the February 18, 2003 PHC, the Assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) stated one of the objectives for the procurement proceeding's long-term planning process is to ensure that the public and interested parties can meaningfully participate in the proceeding and that the public can understand the basis for our decision. Towards that end, the ALJ outlined a procedural process by which the utilities would make a showing that their filed long-term plans do in fact provide for meaningful public participation. This process culminated with the issuance on April 4, 2003 of a Ruling from ALJs Allen and Walwyn that adopted guidelines governing the scope of information that shall be considered confidential in the utility's long-term plans filings.

Since issuance of the April 4 Ruling, parties have continued to voice concern over the amount of information that is shielded from public review. We also recognize that the Legislature, particularly the Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, has taken a strong interest in this subject and has pressed this Commission to expand the amount of utility resource planning and procurement data that is made publicly available, and to ensure that the public has meaningful access to the Commission's decision-making. In light of this ongoing concern and in an effort to promote the widest possible dialogue on utility planning matters in California, we will again revisit our approach to the treatment of confidential information in our new Procurement OIR. Our intent is to broaden the scope of information embedded in utility resource plans that can be made public.

We direct parties' attention to the 2003 Integrated Resource Plan of PacifiCorp (the PacifiCorp Plan), which was submitted to the regulatory commissions of the various western states in which it operates: Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, and Idaho (PacifiCorp also operates in California, but given its limited operations in the state, it is not subject to AB 57 requirements). This plan can be downloaded from http://www.pacificorp.com/Navigation/Navigation23807.html. The PacifiCorp plan provides considerable loads and resource information in its public plan. The extent of information made public in the PacifiCorp Plan appears to exceed the guidelines on confidentiality adopted in the April 4 Ruling and points to the need for a re-examination of our approach with a view towards making far more information public in the next round of long-term procurement plan filings.

We suggest the PacifiCorp plan as a possible model of transparency in resource planning and invite parties to comment on the merits of requiring its use by PG&E, SCE and SDG&E. In their comments, parties should specifically address whether and how California ratepayers could be harmed (e.g., higher procurement costs) as a result of making public the same planning data as is made public in Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, Washington, and Idaho. Would California ratepayers be uniquely disadvantaged relative to ratepayers in other western states with regards to the consequence of expanding the breadth of publicly available planning information? Comments shall be due in this Docket within 30 days of the effective date of this Decision and will be incorporated and made part of the record in our new Procurement OIR, once formally instituted.

As a corollary to our intent to expand the scope of utility planning data that is made public, we also intend to revise the review procedures for new utility projects and power purchase agreements brought before the Commission for pre-approval. We are frustrated with our experience from last year over the amount of information that has been redacted in utility filings seeking pre-approval of certain procurement transactions. The breadth of the redactions we see in utility filings is incompatible with open decision-making. While there may be at times an inherent tension between open decision-making and the protection of confidential information, it is possible to balance these competing goals in the public interest. During the Commission's consideration of procurement issues both in this Docket and in related advice letter filings over the past year, some believe we have tilted this balance more toward the "protection of confidential information" than is required by the public interest. Indeed, based on this experience, we consider the current point on the continuum between these competing goals to have become unworkable, and are resolved to move much closer to the "open decision-making" end of the continuum.

Accordingly, in our new Procurement OIR, we intend to revise the review procedures for utility projects and power purchase agreements such that our decisions are made solely on public information provided by utilities and other suppliers. In particular, we will specify that all product, price, and availability information contained in the IOUs' procurement-related applications that are submitted for Commission approval be public information, to the extent possible, and not subject to confidentiality protections in the absence of a convincing showing that public release will harm ratepayer interests. As part of their comments to be submitted within 30 days of the effective date of this Decision, parties should specifically address the issue of whether and how California ratepayers could be harmed (e.g., higher procurement costs) as a result of our making public all product, price, and availability information contained in the IOUs' procurement-related applications.

The IOUs also submit quarterly compliance filings pursuant to a previous Order in this Docket. These compliance filings contain details of all individual procurement transactions executed by a given utility during the previous quarter. To date, these compliance filings have been submitted under seal. The parties should address in their comments whether and how California ratepayers could be harmed by having all data contained in the IOUs' quarterly procurement transaction compliance filings be submitted as public information not subject to confidentiality protections.