6. Interagency Considerations

In the past two years in selected proceedings, this Commission has encouraged the active and collaborative participation of the California Energy Commission and the California Power Authority in its ratemaking endeavors, rather than as party litigants. Such efforts have included holding joint PHCs and working group meetings presided over by Commissioners from these agencies, with support of interagency advisory staff teams.³⁰ Our interagency efforts in recent rulemakings have also used working groups or technical workshops facilitated by interagency staff designed to develop program and technical details.³¹ This has been an effective tool to ensure that involved state agencies are able to share their technical capabilities and communicate their joint policy goals to the parties at regular intervals during the course of the proceeding.

In developing common methods, consistent input assumptions, updating procedures, and forecasts of avoided costs, we will use interagency working groups in support of our decisionmaking endeavors. At this point, it is too early to specify the details of the precise interagency working models that will prove to be most effective in this proceeding. However, the Assigned Commissioner and assigned ALJ will work together to develop the necessary interagency working models that will support successful decisionmaking here.