Southern California Gas Co. filed a draft interim settlementwith state regulators last week that has backing from most of themajor end-users on its system, along with some marketers andpipelines. An alternate draft proposal from a minority of thestakeholders led by Enron, calling itself the California Alliancefor Competition, also will be filed, but probably not until afterthe holidays.

Supporters of the SoCalGas proposed interim settlement includethe major municipal utilities, including the Los Angeles Departmentof Water and Power; major industrial customers, Dynegy, Reliant,Occidental Petroleum, Williams and Southwest Gas Corp., amongothers. The CPUC last fall gave the parties, which number about 75stakeholders, a final deadline extension until Jan. 28, 2000 tocome up with an all-party settlement. Observers differ on what thismeans exactly, other than the fact that it is the final deadlinefor trying to avoid the more costly, time-consuming process ofevidentiary hearings at the CPUC.

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