Assignment of Proceeding
Michael R. Peevey is the assigned Commissioner.23 David K. Fukutome and John S. Wong were the assigned ALJs at the time D.04-09-022 was issued. Steven A. Weissman and John S. Wong are currently the assigned ALJs.
1. RACE's April 1, 2005 motion seeks to challenge the ruling reached in the February 28, 2005 scoping memo regarding the applicability of CEQA to the entire proceeding.
2. The October 18, 2005 ACR reclassified the April 1, 2005 motion as a petition for modification of D.04-09-022 so that the Commission can address RACE's contention that CEQA should have applied to the Phase I decision.
3. RACE acknowledges that the Commission did not approve or cause the construction of any specific facility in this rulemaking.
4. This rulemaking was issued in response to concerns that in the long-term, there may not be sufficient natural gas supplies and/or infrastructure to meet the future requirements of all California consumers.
5. The rulemaking did not propose that construction activity be undertaken by a public agency, or that an activity be undertaken by a person supported by public agency contracts, grants, subsidies, loans, or other forms of public assistance.
6. None of the utilities or LNG project sponsors requested as part of this rulemaking that a lease, permit, license, certificate, or other entitlement be authorized so that they could build a specific project.
7. A request for authorization to build a specific project requires a utility to file a separate application with the Commission.
8. The CEQA Guidelines state that general policy and procedure making is not a project under CEQA.
9. The assigned Commissioners and the Commission have consistently viewed the Phase I issues as policy matters.
10. D.04-09-022 directed the gas utilities to submit non-discriminatory open access tariffs for all new sources of supply, to establish receipt points as needed, and that Otay Mesa be designated as a common receipt point for both SoCalGas and SDG&E.
1. This decision is limited to the issue of whether CEQA should apply to the Phase I activities that were examined and resolved in D.04-09-022.
2. A rulemaking proceeding is appropriate when the Commission is establishing policy in the form of rules, regulations, and guidelines for a class of public utilities.
3. The ordering paragraphs in D.04-09-022 did not approve the building of any project, nor did it authorize any lease, permit, license, certificate or other entitlement.
4. Allowing the open access interconnections to occur is not an essential step in a chain of events which will lead to a change in the physical environment.
5. The activities related to the Phase I issues in this proceeding did not amount to a "project" within the meaning of CEQA.
6. CEQA does not apply to the Phase I issues that were undertaken in connection with the Phase I decision.
7. RACE's reclassified petition to modify D.04-09-022, which seeks to apply CEQA to the Phase I activities which were reviewed and resolved in D.04-09-022, should be denied.
IT IS ORDERED that Ratepayers for Affordable Clean Energy's April 1, 2005 "Motion for Reconsideration of that portion of the Assigned Commissioner's Scoping Ruling dated February 28, 2005 that denied R.AC.E.'s Motion for a Determination of the Applicability of C.E.Q.A.," which was reclassified as a "Petition for Modification of Decision 04-09-022" by the October 18, 2005 ACR, is denied.
This order is effective today.
Dated _____________________, at San Francisco, California.
23 Prior to January 1, 2006, Susan P. Kennedy was the co-assigned Commissioner.
