VI. Presiding Officer and Scope of Proceeding

A Scoping Memo and Ruling was issued by the assigned Commissioner that, among other matters, designated ALJ Galvin as the principal hearing officer, established an evidentiary hearing schedule, established a service list, and determined the scope of this proceeding. It also authorized parties to update long-term debt and preferred stock costs to reflect the result of the October 2000 "DRI" 30-year Treasury Bonds forecast for 2001.

The issues to be addressed in this proceeding are capital structure, interest rate increases and forecast, common equity, rate base return, financial modeling, risk factor, and an automatic trigger mechanism.