Criteria for Approving All Party Settlements

We approve all-party settlements provided the following criteria are present in addition to criteria applicable to all settlements, which we discuss below. All-party settlements must meet the following requirements:

· The Settlement must command the unanimous sponsorship of all active parties to the proceeding. Because SCWC, ORA and Bear Mountain are the only parties to this proceeding, this criterion plainly is met.

· The sponsoring parties must be fairly representative of the affected interests. The increase in electric rates SCWC proposes will affect its customers. ORA represents the interests of those customers and advocates for all customers;¹⁷ while Bear Mountain represents itself as a large electric customer.

· No term of the settlement may contravene statutory provisions or prior Commission decisions. Nothing in the Settlement Agreement we approve contravenes statutory provisions or prior Commission decisions, and thus the settlement meets this criterion.

· The settlement must convey to the Commission sufficient information to permit it to discharge its future regulatory obligations with respect to the parties and their interests. The Settlement Agreement we approve sufficiently states the amount of the proposed electric revenues, the proposed allocation of revenues to customer classes, adjustments to the PPAC balancing account, and miscellaneous provisions to enable the Commission to fulfill its future regulatory obligations with respect to the parties and their interests.¹⁸