Some 11th-hour life has been pumped back into a proposal forallowing gas distribution competition in an industrialized part ofthe East San Francisco Bay. Two members of the five-memberCalifornia Public Utilities Commission have proposed an alternativeto the Western Gas Resources pipeline proposal, which would servecustomers inside Pacific Gas & Electric’s franchise territory.The CPUC is scheduled to take up competing approaches when it meetsNov. 4 in San Francisco.

Western Gas Resources got a reprieve earlier in October when oneof the CPUC’s two new appointees, Joel Hyatt, joined Josiah Neeperin sponsoring an alternative order that would allow regulators tohold hearings on Western’s proposal to buy 170 miles of two-inch-and 10-inch-diameter proprietary gas pipeline and connect it withthe local utility transmission system. The plan would convert thepipeline to an open-access CPUC-regulated line that would servenearby industrial load, but could eventually compete forresidential load.

PG&E earlier asked the CPUC to dismiss the proposal becausethe state regulators have no policy to allow local gas transmissionand distribution competition. An administrative law judge (ALJ)subsequently supported the utility position.

“PG&E’s approach would limit the commission’s ability toconsider, case by case, new competitive initiatives, regardless oftheir individual merits,” Hyatt and Neeper wrote in an alternatedecision. “…[T]he commission should not automatically refuse toconsider a reasonable proposal on the basis that existing policydoes not address all of its ramifications.”

In granting the alternative, the two regulators did not rejectPG&E arguments. They stated that after evidence is collectedand hearings held, they think it would be appropriate for the CPUCto consider the issues raised by the PG&E utility

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