ALJ/GEW/eap Mailed 7/1/2005

Decision 05-06-054 June 30, 2005

BEFORE THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

Order Instituting Rulemaking to Revise Commission General Order Numbers 95 and 128.

Rulemaking 01-10-001 (Filed October 2, 2001)

OPINION GRANTING INTERVENOR COMPENSATION
TO CN UTILITY CONSULTING, LLC FOR
CONTRIBUTIONS TO DECISION 05-01-030

This decision awards $40,710.51 to CN Utility Consulting, LLC (CNUC) in compensation for its contribution to Decision (D.) 05-01-030. This represents a decrease of $37,012.50 from the amount requested.

I. Background

The Commission issued Order Instituting Rulemaking (R.) 01-10-001 to revise General Order (GO) 95 and GO 128, which govern, respectively, the construction of overhead and underground supply and communications systems. Commission staff, industry representatives, labor organizations, and the public participated in 16 months of twice-monthly two- and three-day public workshops throughout California. A total of 63 proposed revisions to existing rules were considered. Of these, 40 revisions were supported by consensus of the workshop participants; 15 were withdrawn, and eight were in dispute. In D.05-01-030, the Commission adopted the consensus changes, noted the withdrawn proposals, resolved seven of the eight disputed change proposals, and deferred consideration of one disputed proposal to a later proceeding (R.05-02-023).

CNUC is a small business concern with two partners, Stephen R. Cieslewicz and Robert R. Novembri, who are arborists with many years of experience in utility vegetation management. CNUC currently serves in a consultant role with the Joint U.S./Canada Power System Outage Task Force. Cieslewicz is past president of the Utility Arborist Association and was awarded the 2003 Utility Arborist Award of the International Society of Arboriculture. CNUC limited its participation in this proceeding to analyses of Rule 35 of GO 95. Specifically, CNUC made recommendations for keeping trees and vegetation away from power lines in a cost-effective manner. The firm's partners participated only in workshops dealing with Rule 35. CNUC requests $77,723.01 for its contributions to D.05-01-030.