3. Procedural Issues
The first prehearing conference in this matter was held on March 25, 2004. Earth Corps timely filed its NOI on April 26, 2004. In its NOI, Earth Corps asserted financial hardship.
Section 1802(b)(1) defines a customer as: A) a participant representing consumers, customers or subscribers of a utility; B) a representative who has been authorized by a customer; or C) a representative of a group or organization authorized pursuant to it articles of incorporation or bylaws to represent the interests of residential or small business customers. In this case, Earth Corps is a customer as defined in paragraph C because it is authorized pursuant to its bylaws to represent the interests of consumers, a portion of whom are residential customers.
On May 20, 2004, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Jeffrey P. O'Donnell ruled that Earth Corps is a customer pursuant to § 1802(b)(1)(C), and meets the financial hardship condition pursuant to § 1802(g). Earth Corps filed its request for compensation on February 21, 2006, 64 days after D.05-12-040 was mailed, and 63 days after it was published.2 As discussed in Section 7, we grant Earth Corps' March 3, 2006 motion to file its request late. In view of the above, we affirm ALJ O'Donnell's ruling and find Earth Corps has satisfied all the procedural requirements necessary to make its request for compensation.
2 Earth Corps filed an amended request on April 7, 2006.
