2. Background

On October 6, 2005, the Commission held a full panel hearing to address the impact of rising natural gas prices on low income customers for this coming winter. As part of the response to these concerns, SoCalGas filed the above-captioned application. In order to pass the benefits of this project on to CARE customers in time to have an effect on the CARE customers' 2005-2006 winter bill, SoCalGas requested that the protest period be shortened and that the Commission act on its application at the November 18, 2005 meeting.

A ruling was issued on October 20, 2005 which granted the request to shorten the time for the protest period, and which noticed a prehearing conference for November 2, 2005. On October 27, 2005, The Utility Reform Network (TURN) filed a protest to the application, and separate responses to the application were filed by Coral Energy Resources, L.P. (Coral), the Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA), and the Southern California Generation Coalition (SCGC). On November 1, 2005, SoCalGas and TURN filed separate replies to the protests and responses.

The prehearing conference was held on November 2, 2005 to discuss the scope of the issues to be covered in this proceeding and the procedural schedule for resolving the issues. Following the prehearing conference, a scoping memo and ruling (scoping memo) was issued on November 7, 2005. The scoping memo identified the issues to be addressed in this proceeding, and established a schedule for resolving some of the issues. In order for CARE customers to obtain the benefit of the rework project for their winter gas bills, SoCalGas requests that the Commission act quickly on certain authorizations and ratemaking treatment.