VIII. Withdrawal of Application

The Commission will grant SBC California's motion to dismiss this proceeding at the request of the applicant. Although SBC California presents no justification for closing the proceeding, the pleadings suggest that intervenors prefer the status quo to the substantive outcomes SBC California originally advocated. We therefore find no compelling reason to pursue the application. We close the proceeding with several conditions.

First, for a period of two years from the date of this order, the Commission will reject for filing any application or advice letter by SBC California that requests recategorization of DA services, including any application or advice letter that incorporates with other matters a request for recategorization of DA. SBC California's application imposed considerable burdens on the Commission and several intervenors and SBC California withdrew its application before the Commission could resolve related issues. Our decision to grant the motion with prejudice for a period of two years recognizes that, in fairness to all utilities, Commission staff and intervenors, the Commission must set priorities to address its substantial workload. We have dedicated enough scarce resources to this issue for the time being and we discourage the filing of future applications that may be arbitrarily withdrawn.

Second, the Commission may incorporate the record of this proceeding into any future applications filed by SBC California for recategorization of DA services. SBC California will have the burden to show that the record in this docket is not relevant to requests in any future application concerning DA services. This condition recognizes the substantial burden on parties and the Commission in litigating SBC California's application and seeks to make efficient use of the existing record in a future application, should one be filed.

Third, we invite Greenlining and TURN to seek compensation for their work in this proceeding pursuant to our intervenor compensation program. Although intervenor compensation is normally granted for work contributing to a final decision on the merits of an applicant's request, there will be no such order in this proceeding. We acknowledge the good faith efforts of the parties to pursue their constituents' interests in this proceeding and do not believe they should be penalized because we have decided to grant the applicant's request to withdraw the application. At SBC California's urging, we have kept this proceeding open and withdrew from the Commission's August 21, 2003 meeting agenda the ALJ's recommendation to close the proceeding.

We do not order SBC California to reimburse ORA, whose budget is established by the State Legislature with funds collected from customer bills.

In conclusion, we have no reason to believe closing this proceeding will compromise SBC California's customers or the general public and grant SBC California's motion on that basis. Our decision to condition the closure of this proceeding follows from our duty to promote fair and efficient procedures.