Other issues

Southwest Gas has proposes that the Commission should equalize the burdens associated with increased CARE and LIEE programs by adopting a statewide, uniform surcharge based on the combined total expenditures of all utilities. According to Southwest, this would minimize the impact on the customers of the smaller utilities who would otherwise be heavily laden with the costs of expanding the CARE and LIEE programs, as all utility customers statewide would pay the same rate, and all eligible customers would receive the same benefit, drawn from a common fund. While this may be an interesting idea, it is clearly beyond the scope of this portion of this proceeding, and will not be addressed here.