Discussion
Pub. Util. Code § 851 provides that no public utility "shall ... lease ... [property] necessary or useful in the performance of its duties to the public ... without first having secured from the [C]ommission an order authorizing it so to do." The relevant inquiry for the Commission in Section 851 proceedings is whether the proposed transaction is "adverse to the public interest."3
The proposed lease satisfies this test. The Commission has determined that the public interest is served when utility property is used for other productive purposes without interfering with the utility's operation.4 The public interest is not harmed here since the proposed lease will not affect the utility's operation of its facilities. Because the proposed agreement will generate revenues from the secondary use of the site and ratepayers will share in those revenues, the application should be approved.
3 See, e.g., Universal Marine Corporation (1984) 14 CPUC2d 644. 4 In D.93-04-019, p. 3, we observed: "Joint use of utility facilities has obvious economic and environmental benefits. The public interest is served when utility property is used for other productive purposes without interfering with the utility's operation or affecting service to utility customers."
