Peevey DeBerry Scoping Memo and Ruling of Assigned Commissioner

Scope

Several parties' comments recommend that the scope of this proceeding be expanded to include: (1) Land use planning; (2) Just compensation to land owners; (3) Inclusion of EMFs as a factor in California Environmental Quality Act reviews; (4) Rewriting of General Order 131-D; (5) Determination of numerical EMF standards; and (6) Purported health effects of EMFs, as well as other issues not included in the Preliminary Scoping Memo for R.04-08-020.

I have considered all of the comments by parties, and determined that this proceeding will not include extraneous issues outside of the adopted rulemaking. Therefore, I will keep the scope of this proceeding focused exclusively on the matters set forth in R.04-08-020, and parties' requests to expand the scope of this proceeding beyond the matters identified in R.04-08-020 are denied.

In addition to requests by parties to expand the scope of this proceeding, several parties have recommended that Dr. Neutra, one of the three authors of the DHS EMF Report, be available for workshop questions. However, the conclusions of the DHS EMF Report are the consensus findings of three authors, and the report and its conclusions should be evaluated as published. Parties may comment on the findings and conclusions of the DHS EMF Report as appropriate.

Accordingly the scope of this proceeding shall address the following three issues identified in the Preliminary Scoping Memo:

1. The results of the Commission's current "low-cost/no-cost" mitigation policy and the need for modifications.

2. Explore improvement in the implementation of the existing "low cost/no-cost" mitigation policy.

3. New EMF related scientific data leading to new or revised Commission EMF mitigation policies.

Although this proceeding will focus on the three issues listed above, parties' comments suggest useful methods to address these three issues. These methods include a review of the latest EMF Design Guidelines from respondent utilities, how the EMF Design Guidelines might apply to new projects, as well as consideration of new scientific studies such as the World Health Organization study on EMFs that is anticipated later this year. These recommendations should be considered in addressing the three scoping issues.