WEBVTT 00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:05.383 Good morning, everyone. 00:00:05.395 --> 00:00:09.502 Welcome to the Public Utilities Commission 00:00:09.514 --> 00:00:13.518 meeting for February 6, 2020. Please rise 00:00:13.530 --> 00:00:17.451 and we will do the Pledge of Allegiance. 00:00:17.476 --> 00:00:21.589 I pledge allegiance to the flag of the 00:00:21.601 --> 00:00:25.815 United States of America., and to the Republic 00:00:25.827 --> 00:00:29.766 for which it stands, one nation, under God, 00:00:29.778 --> 00:00:33.999 indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 00:00:34.024 --> 00:00:38.010 All right, we will start 00:00:38.022 --> 00:00:42.099 with a little information about what to do in case 00:00:42.111 --> 00:00:46.183 of an emergency. For those of you in the room, you 00:00:46.195 --> 00:00:50.119 will exit out of the doors to your right and the 00:00:50.131 --> 00:00:54.280 Commissioners’ left and go straight ahead until you 00:00:54.292 --> 00:00:58.613 see the lobby and exit door. Once outside, you make a 00:00:58.625 --> 00:01:03.100 right to walk towards the parking lot and away from the 00:01:03.112 --> 00:01:07.199 building. Okay, we will begin with public comment. 00:01:07.224 --> 00:01:11.465 We will be, we have approximately 00:01:11.477 --> 00:01:15.513 17 speakers signed up for public comment, so we will be 00:01:15.525 --> 00:01:19.339 allowing two minutes per speaker. I have the list of 00:01:19.351 --> 00:01:23.609 speakers. As I call your name, I'm gonna call two names at 00:01:23.621 --> 00:01:28.153 a time, so when you hear your name, come up to the microphone, 00:01:28.165 --> 00:01:31.916 and when you hear your name as the next person, sit 00:01:31.928 --> 00:01:35.961 up there in the front seat so you're ready to take your 00:01:35.973 --> 00:01:40.018 seat, I mean, to stand up and make your comments at the 00:01:40.030 --> 00:01:44.345 microphone. If you have any written information or anything 00:01:44.357 --> 00:01:48.250 else you want to present to the Commissioners, please 00:01:48.262 --> 00:01:52.511 hand them to our Executive Director, Alice Stebbins, here, 00:01:52.523 --> 00:01:56.566 up to the Commissioners’ right. So we will go ahead and 00:01:56.578 --> 00:02:00.823 get started with our first two public speakers. Oh, before 00:02:00.835 --> 00:02:04.876 we get started with the public comment, I wanted to, we 00:02:04.888 --> 00:02:09.140 have a couple of officials who are here to welcome us here 00:02:09.152 --> 00:02:13.126 at, in Bakersfield, so we have Supervisor Perez first. 00:02:13.151 --> 00:02:17.263 Thank you very much. Greatly appreciate that. A 00:02:17.275 --> 00:02:21.762 couple of weeks ago, and I'm sure you've heard, we had the opportunity to 00:02:21.774 --> 00:02:26.013 welcome some of the Governor's closest staff to come and address, you 00:02:26.025 --> 00:02:30.337 know, a utterly critical issue in Kern County, as you know, the future 00:02:30.349 --> 00:02:34.706 of our oil and gas industry and really the sophistication and expertise 00:02:34.718 --> 00:02:38.845 of Kern County's energy portfolio, and I am just so pleased that we 00:02:38.857 --> 00:02:43.038 had the opportunity to showcase our best and brightest here in Kern. 00:02:43.050 --> 00:02:47.243 I think we wowed some of the governor's people, I’m proud to say. We 00:02:47.255 --> 00:02:51.368 had an incredible civil discourse, over six hours of the remarkable 00:02:51.380 --> 00:02:55.748 diversity, sophistication, and forward-thinking nature of leadership in 00:02:55.760 --> 00:03:00.061 Kern County, as it relates, in particular, to our energy portfolio. We 00:03:00.073 --> 00:03:04.204 are an all of the above Energy County, if you will, and we're proud 00:03:04.216 --> 00:03:08.393 of it because we are recognized in USA Today as being the number one 00:03:08.405 --> 00:03:12.654 county in America for renewable capacity. So the way in which we have 00:03:12.666 --> 00:03:16.970 related with you, the way in which we have understood who you are, and 00:03:16.982 --> 00:03:21.238 what you expect from us is better than anywhere in the country, as it 00:03:21.250 --> 00:03:25.783 relates to renewables, and we are so proud of that, and we are so grateful 00:03:25.795 --> 00:03:29.916 that you've taken the time to come here and to see some of our best 00:03:29.928 --> 00:03:34.164 and brightest. Certainly, we'll have heated points of discussion, I'm 00:03:34.176 --> 00:03:38.363 sure. I'm sure you're used to that, but, and I'm glad you have M&M’s 00:03:38.375 --> 00:03:42.183 to get you through that that will help certainly, but I really 00:03:42.195 --> 00:03:46.622 appreciate your time here. Kern County's my home, been here for multiple 00:03:46.634 --> 00:03:50.994 generations as well as my family, extended family, and we're very proud 00:03:51.006 --> 00:03:55.379 of what we do and what we offer the state of California in partnership. 00:03:55.391 --> 00:03:59.743 And so, that's my hope and vision that that's how you see us and that's 00:03:59.755 --> 00:04:04.181 how you think of us because we have diversified and we have an expertise 00:04:04.193 --> 00:04:08.248 that is unparalleled, and we're proud of that and we offer that to 00:04:08.260 --> 00:04:12.449 you in partnership because we think that we can be united in efforts 00:04:12.461 --> 00:04:16.756 for Kern County and the state of California and the country, the globe 00:04:16.768 --> 00:04:21.136 for that matter. We're really that big in California. We appreciate our 00:04:21.148 --> 00:04:25.571 small role in that, so thank you very much, we appreciate your attention 00:04:25.583 --> 00:04:29.592 and your love for Kern County because we certainly do. Thank you. 00:04:29.617 --> 00:04:32.071 I just wanna 00:04:32.083 --> 00:04:34.436 thank you very much and thank Kern County 00:04:34.448 --> 00:04:36.796 because without the active support you’ve 00:04:36.808 --> 00:04:39.168 shown for renewable projects, we wouldn't 00:04:39.180 --> 00:04:41.511 have achieved our renewable energy goals, 00:04:41.523 --> 00:04:43.977 and we have much more ambitious goals going 00:04:43.989 --> 00:04:46.550 forward and we'll need your continued support 00:04:46.562 --> 00:04:48.911 and partnership to achieve those as well. 00:04:48.936 --> 00:04:50.914 Pertenership is the key. Thank you so much. 00:04:50.939 --> 00:04:51.402 Thank you. 00:04:51.427 --> 00:04:56.055 Thank you, Supervisor. And then Dr. 00:04:56.067 --> 00:05:00.479 David Lyman, the city manager for the city of Bakersfield. 00:05:00.503 --> 00:05:02.503 (audience chatter) 00:05:05.864 --> 00:05:10.961 Oh sorry. that's what it says on my piece of paper 00:05:10.986 --> 00:05:15.722 Good morning, Commission members and staff. I'm David Lyman. I am 00:05:15.734 --> 00:05:18.212 not the new city manager. I am the manager 00:05:18.224 --> 00:05:20.540 of Visit Bakersfield. We are the city's 00:05:20.552 --> 00:05:22.969 Convention and Visitor's Bureau, however, 00:05:22.981 --> 00:05:25.352 I do appreciate the promotion. I will be 00:05:25.364 --> 00:05:27.903 talking to HR when I get back to work. It's 00:05:27.915 --> 00:05:30.524 my pleasure to provide you with the official 00:05:30.536 --> 00:05:32.951 welcome from the city of Bakersfield this 00:05:32.963 --> 00:05:35.448 morning. Many of you know that Bakersfield 00:05:35.460 --> 00:05:37.650 is a hub of one of the world's largest 00:05:37.662 --> 00:05:40.153 agriculture producing area. As Supervisor 00:05:40.165 --> 00:05:44.852 Perez mentioned, we are a hub of a very large energy producing area. You may not 00:05:44.864 --> 00:05:47.115 be familiar with the effect that travel 00:05:47.127 --> 00:05:49.621 and tourism has on our local economy, and 00:05:49.633 --> 00:05:52.048 we are right now in the middle of a hotel 00:05:52.060 --> 00:05:54.429 building boom trying to keep up with the 00:05:54.441 --> 00:05:56.688 demand. We have one new hotel that just 00:05:56.700 --> 00:05:59.364 opened two months ago. Another one that just 00:05:59.376 --> 00:06:01.794 opened yesterday. A third hotel that will 00:06:01.806 --> 00:06:04.119 open soon. We have four new hotels that 00:06:04.131 --> 00:06:06.265 are under consideration or have plans 00:06:06.277 --> 00:06:09.003 submitted to city planning. When all of those 00:06:09.015 --> 00:06:11.489 are completed, we will have more than 760, 00:06:11.501 --> 00:06:13.755 seven six zero, new hotel rooms in the 00:06:13.767 --> 00:06:16.015 city of Bakersfield. In addition to new 00:06:16.027 --> 00:06:18.520 hotel rooms, we have the hotel across the 00:06:18.532 --> 00:06:21.067 street that was recently gutted, renovated, 00:06:21.079 --> 00:06:23.336 and rebranded. A new hotel behind, our 00:06:23.348 --> 00:06:26.063 hotel behind us is going through a renovation, 00:06:26.075 --> 00:06:28.280 but it’s nothing when compared to the 00:06:28.292 --> 00:06:30.878 size of the massive and multi-million dollar 00:06:30.890 --> 00:06:33.315 renovation that's going on at this hotel, 00:06:33.327 --> 00:06:35.861 right here, our largest hotel. All of these 00:06:35.873 --> 00:06:38.014 projects are being funded by private 00:06:38.026 --> 00:06:42.708 sector dollars. I want you to know that there are government funds involved, and 00:06:42.720 --> 00:06:45.199 that is a testament to the confidence that 00:06:45.211 --> 00:06:47.645 private developers have in the underlying 00:06:47.657 --> 00:06:50.186 strength of Bakersfield's hotel and tourism 00:06:50.198 --> 00:06:52.683 market. I tell you this not because I'm in 00:06:52.695 --> 00:06:55.288 travel and tourism, but because our city was 00:06:55.300 --> 00:06:57.733 founded on hospitality. In the mid-1800s, 00:06:57.745 --> 00:07:00.161 a fellow named Colonel Thomas Baker began 00:07:00.173 --> 00:07:02.487 settling this area, and let it be known 00:07:02.499 --> 00:07:04.980 that everyone was welcome to stop and rest 00:07:04.992 --> 00:07:07.195 here, rest themselves, and rest their 00:07:07.207 --> 00:07:09.735 animals. Word soon spread that everyone was 00:07:09.747 --> 00:07:11.999 welcome to stop in Baker's Field. From 00:07:12.011 --> 00:07:14.488 the town he plotted in 1869 to today being 00:07:14.500 --> 00:07:16.700 California's ninth largest city, that 00:07:16.712 --> 00:07:19.301 spirit of Colonel Baker lives on. We welcome 00:07:19.313 --> 00:07:21.452 people of all shapes, all sizes, all 00:07:21.464 --> 00:07:24.177 colors, all religions from all over the world. 00:07:24.189 --> 00:07:26.507 That welcoming spirit, it's part of our 00:07:26.519 --> 00:07:28.760 Bakersfield DNA. I'm happy to greet you 00:07:28.772 --> 00:07:31.372 this morning and I wish you success in your 00:07:31.384 --> 00:07:33.573 meeting today and I invite you to come 00:07:33.585 --> 00:07:36.076 back and stay longer in our community. On 00:07:36.088 --> 00:07:38.332 behalf of Mayor Karen Go and members of 00:07:38.344 --> 00:07:40.831 the Bakersfield City Council, bienvenidos 00:07:40.843 --> 00:07:43.499 Bienvenue, wilkommen, welcome to Bakersfield, 00:07:43.511 --> 00:07:45.773 and welcome to my hometown. Thank you. 00:07:45.798 --> 00:07:51.280 Thank you very much. Okay, and then, for 00:07:51.280 --> 00:07:59.290 public comment, Alan Christensen. Alan Christensen is gonna be followed by 00:07:59.290 --> 00:08:01.248 Grace Vallejo 00:08:01.273 --> 00:08:04.812 Thank You, members of the 00:08:04.824 --> 00:08:09.146 Commission, wanted to thank your Commissioner and staff 00:08:09.158 --> 00:08:12.934 that I met with last night, they were very kind, 00:08:12.946 --> 00:08:16.735 and we talked about some of the PSPS issues that 00:08:16.747 --> 00:08:20.829 the county has, so appreciate that. My comments will 00:08:20.841 --> 00:08:24.549 be short. I'm sure you'll hear some of the same 00:08:24.561 --> 00:08:28.417 things from others. We at the county applaud what 00:08:28.429 --> 00:08:31.988 we saw recently as a reorganization plan from 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:36.081 PG&E that discusses regionalizing business units for 00:08:36.093 --> 00:08:39.954 operations going forward to enhance the company's 00:08:39.966 --> 00:08:43.511 focus on local communities and customers. The 00:08:43.523 --> 00:08:47.545 reason for that is obvious. Whenever you can get to 00:08:47.557 --> 00:08:51.718 the locals, that's always a good thing, but the legal 00:08:51.730 --> 00:08:55.440 costs associated with the fires and those costs 00:08:55.452 --> 00:08:59.000 that PG&E will be handling going forward will 00:08:59.012 --> 00:09:02.882 ultimately be passed along to ratepayers. We feel 00:09:02.894 --> 00:09:06.814 that the system should not be set up so that where 00:09:06.826 --> 00:09:10.759 fires occur in other areas, we should not have the 00:09:10.771 --> 00:09:14.466 responsibility to receive the rates associated, 00:09:14.478 --> 00:09:18.262 the rate increases associated with those issues. 00:09:18.274 --> 00:09:22.043 In fact, given that we have, we believe policies 00:09:22.055 --> 00:09:25.836 here in Kern County and in the region that would 00:09:25.848 --> 00:09:29.855 not add to such events, we think that, again, those 00:09:29.867 --> 00:09:33.576 responsibilities ought to be borne by the areas 00:09:33.588 --> 00:09:37.665 where they occur. Secondly, those costs will be will 00:09:37.677 --> 00:09:41.534 be borne by many of the disadvantaged communities 00:09:41.546 --> 00:09:45.165 in Kern County. We have many of them that are, 00:09:45.177 --> 00:09:48.808 they’re on the below the poverty level, and we 00:09:48.820 --> 00:09:52.899 feel that, again, the regionalizing of the company's 00:09:52.911 --> 00:09:56.539 operations would help to minimize the costs to 00:09:56.551 --> 00:10:00.560 those populations. So with that, thank you for your 00:10:00.572 --> 00:10:04.360 time, and I appreciate the opportunity to speak. 00:10:04.385 --> 00:10:08.905 Thank you very much. Grace Vallejo from 00:10:08.917 --> 00:10:13.170 the city of Delano, and then followed by Rico Vero Hernandez. 00:10:19.970 --> 00:10:23.249 I always end up doing this. 00:10:23.261 --> 00:10:26.122 Thank you for your time. I also want to 00:10:26.134 --> 00:10:29.419 thank you for coming to our county. Delano is 00:10:29.431 --> 00:10:32.584 the second largest city in Kern County, and 00:10:32.596 --> 00:10:35.950 one of the things that I always thought is why 00:10:35.962 --> 00:10:39.041 do we have to go all the way to the north, 00:10:39.053 --> 00:10:42.198 all the way through the south, to appear at 00:10:42.210 --> 00:10:45.295 one of these hearings, so I'm sure I'm not 00:10:45.307 --> 00:10:48.229 the only one that is grateful to you for 00:10:48.241 --> 00:10:51.676 bringing it here to the Central Valley, so that 00:10:51.688 --> 00:10:54.903 we have people coming from all the different 00:10:54.915 --> 00:10:57.999 areas. I have here, which I will be giving 00:10:58.011 --> 00:11:00.792 to your, I don't know if it's Clerk, we 00:11:00.804 --> 00:11:03.884 call them clerks. These are copies of our 00:11:03.896 --> 00:11:07.329 resolution that the city of Delano voted on and 00:11:07.341 --> 00:11:10.428 passed and sent it out because for us, I'm 00:11:10.440 --> 00:11:13.791 here to talk about choice. I know that there's 00:11:13.803 --> 00:11:16.951 a lot of talk about renewable energy, about 00:11:16.963 --> 00:11:20.178 the solar, about the wind, but I think that, 00:11:20.190 --> 00:11:23.129 as local governments, we should be given 00:11:23.141 --> 00:11:26.495 the choice for our residents. I think that the 00:11:26.507 --> 00:11:29.587 gas is something we should never eliminate 00:11:29.599 --> 00:11:32.744 or even try to control because for us if we 00:11:32.756 --> 00:11:35.770 want to have gas in our homes that should 00:11:35.782 --> 00:11:39.063 be our choice, and I know that in the city of 00:11:39.075 --> 00:11:42.154 Delano, we started using what they called, 00:11:42.166 --> 00:11:45.525 we called it green gas, or CNG, in our schools 00:11:45.537 --> 00:11:48.262 and in our city vehicles, and I think 00:11:48.274 --> 00:11:51.343 we have to have some kind of balance where 00:11:51.355 --> 00:11:54.436 we're allowed to see that whether it's gas 00:11:54.448 --> 00:11:57.451 or electric, that they're both working on 00:11:57.463 --> 00:12:00.694 anything that's going to improve our quality 00:12:00.706 --> 00:12:03.768 of life. I have asthma so I care about the 00:12:03.780 --> 00:12:07.141 air. I care about the water that we drink. And 00:12:07.153 --> 00:12:10.149 so I'm asking you to please consider when 00:12:10.161 --> 00:12:13.313 you make your decisions regarding which way 00:12:13.325 --> 00:12:16.462 you're going to push for gas or electric to 00:12:16.474 --> 00:12:19.694 keep it as a balance instead. I think we can 00:12:19.706 --> 00:12:22.920 partner together. I think both utilities can 00:12:22.932 --> 00:12:26.015 improve the service they provide, they can 00:12:26.027 --> 00:12:29.306 improve what they provide to us, whether it's 00:12:29.318 --> 00:12:32.393 gas or whether it's electric. I don't want 00:12:32.405 --> 00:12:35.403 to be told that I have to put solar on my 00:12:35.415 --> 00:12:38.497 home. I don't want to be told if I have to 00:12:38.509 --> 00:12:41.790 have all of my items in my house be electric. 00:12:41.802 --> 00:12:44.594 I'll probably be one of those that are 00:12:44.606 --> 00:12:47.750 grandfathered because I'm in the same place 00:12:47.762 --> 00:12:51.062 and have been there for years, and to me, I'm 00:12:51.074 --> 00:12:54.280 going to ask you and encourage you to please 00:12:54.292 --> 00:12:57.295 consider that as you hear people speak in 00:12:57.307 --> 00:13:00.519 regards to the way services provided. Solar, 00:13:00.531 --> 00:13:03.325 while it is great, now that it's being 00:13:03.337 --> 00:13:06.475 forced into developers putting it on homes, 00:13:06.487 --> 00:13:09.923 it'll raise the price of houses as we're trying 00:13:09.935 --> 00:13:12.935 to bring the price down on homes, so that 00:13:12.947 --> 00:13:16.031 people can afford them, so I think there's 00:13:16.043 --> 00:13:19.250 just too many things to talk about, so right 00:13:19.262 --> 00:13:22.338 now I'm only asking that you do a balanced 00:13:22.350 --> 00:13:25.421 decision for balanced energy. Whether it's 00:13:25.433 --> 00:13:28.587 coming from the providers, through Southern 00:13:28.599 --> 00:13:31.379 California Edison which is our area, or 00:13:31.391 --> 00:13:34.829 Southern California Gas, and you'll see by our 00:13:34.841 --> 00:13:38.058 resolution how we feel that I think that can 00:13:38.070 --> 00:13:41.083 be provided here in our state. Thank you. 00:13:41.108 --> 00:13:44.585 Thank you very much. 00:13:44.597 --> 00:13:48.010 Rico vero Hernandez followed by Julio Tamayo. 00:13:52.420 --> 00:14:21.335 (speaks in dialect) 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:25.058 Thank you very much for having me, for allowing 00:14:25.070 --> 00:14:28.935 me to be here. I thank you in advance. My name is 00:14:28.947 --> 00:14:32.883 Rico Vero Hernandez. I come from Oaxaca. I speak a 00:14:32.895 --> 00:14:36.844 dialect. I come from San Maria, California, I live 00:14:36.856 --> 00:14:41.253 in Santa Maria, California. Our Central Coast community, 00:14:41.265 --> 00:14:44.902 it's very diverse. I'm part of an organization 00:14:44.914 --> 00:14:48.388 called the American GI Forum which allows an 00:14:48.400 --> 00:14:52.506 educational foundation entity that allows us to give 00:14:52.518 --> 00:14:56.218 awareness of the different impact of decisions, 00:14:56.230 --> 00:15:00.096 like the decisions you're gonna be making for our 00:15:00.108 --> 00:15:04.356 community. We give the information, we are transporter 00:15:04.368 --> 00:15:08.163 of an information that allows people to be aware 00:15:08.175 --> 00:15:11.955 of different changes. I know, there are changes, 00:15:11.967 --> 00:15:15.914 specifically I'm talking about TOU, time of use. I 00:15:15.926 --> 00:15:19.867 believe that our community, the Oaxacan community, 00:15:19.879 --> 00:15:23.444 there's a language barrier, there's a culture 00:15:23.456 --> 00:15:27.460 barrier that if we don't pass that information it's 00:15:27.472 --> 00:15:31.487 very difficult for them to understand. I understand 00:15:31.499 --> 00:15:35.431 that our prices are gonna change, different things 00:15:35.443 --> 00:15:39.001 that are going to take place. I know a dollar 00:15:39.013 --> 00:15:42.710 is a dollar. Families are waking up very early, 00:15:42.722 --> 00:15:46.818 working out late, makes a difference in their pocket 00:15:46.830 --> 00:15:50.765 and knowledge is key, knowledge is power, and when 00:15:50.777 --> 00:15:54.337 you know and you understand that something is 00:15:54.349 --> 00:15:58.200 going to be changed and you are prepared for that 00:15:58.212 --> 00:16:02.151 and you educate your children and you give that to 00:16:02.163 --> 00:16:06.174 the your community, it's something that is, they're 00:16:06.186 --> 00:16:09.900 thankful for that, and I hope you take my point 00:16:09.912 --> 00:16:13.456 of view when you make a decision. I do really 00:16:13.468 --> 00:16:17.565 appreciate your time, and I appreciate the community 00:16:17.577 --> 00:16:21.204 here in Bakersfield for allowing us to be here 00:16:21.216 --> 00:16:25.010 and give our point of view. Thank you very much. 00:16:25.010 --> 00:16:28.007 Thank you. Julio 00:16:28.019 --> 00:16:30.742 Tamayo followed by Valentin Hernandez. 00:16:30.767 --> 00:16:34.949 Good morning. Thank you for the opportunity. 00:16:34.961 --> 00:16:38.410 We come from Santa Maria, California, representing 00:16:38.422 --> 00:16:42.475 the Santa Barbara County. We are nestled in an agricultural 00:16:42.487 --> 00:16:46.146 community, we’re large majority of Mixteco population 00:16:46.158 --> 00:16:50.140 has established and lived there for many years. I've lived 00:16:50.152 --> 00:16:53.943 in the Central Coast myself for approximately 40 years, 00:16:53.955 --> 00:16:57.536 and I'm also a member for Center for the American GI 00:16:57.548 --> 00:17:01.413 forum. In the last, year we brought, we've been bringing 00:17:01.425 --> 00:17:05.066 awareness to the community, particularly the Mixteco, 00:17:05.078 --> 00:17:08.732 and difficult to reach communities. We've established 00:17:08.744 --> 00:17:12.798 partnership, collaboration, and relationship with local law 00:17:12.810 --> 00:17:16.606 enforcement, community, school districts, the Headstart 00:17:16.618 --> 00:17:20.669 programs, other community events. We participate in parades 00:17:20.681 --> 00:17:24.135 such as the rodeo that happens in June/July. We've 00:17:24.147 --> 00:17:28.068 been knocking doors, you know, reaching out the difficult 00:17:28.080 --> 00:17:31.540 community where language acculturation integration 00:17:31.552 --> 00:17:35.256 is a barrier, so we are creating an impact and we love 00:17:35.268 --> 00:17:38.782 to make you guys aware that we need to focus on the 00:17:38.794 --> 00:17:42.707 continuous relationship with those communities. We cannot 00:17:42.719 --> 00:17:46.442 stop the TOU, the TOU needs to continue so that we can 00:17:46.454 --> 00:17:50.161 continue to provide that information. We have a lot of 00:17:50.173 --> 00:17:53.893 testimonials. Unfortunately, two minutes is not a long 00:17:53.905 --> 00:17:57.618 enough time where we could share the testimonials that 00:17:57.630 --> 00:18:01.423 we hear from the families. They're bringing the culture 00:18:01.435 --> 00:18:05.209 from Mexico to the United States, just like my mom, you 00:18:05.221 --> 00:18:09.007 know, I come from a family of ten. We didn't know about 00:18:09.019 --> 00:18:12.866 saving energy. Now, you know, I'm making everybody aware 00:18:12.878 --> 00:18:16.331 that saving energy is key. Especially in the Santa 00:18:16.343 --> 00:18:20.255 Barbara County. I want to thank you again and please take 00:18:20.267 --> 00:18:23.988 into consideration the impact that we will cost in the 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:27.715 community and the impact if the TOU stops that it will 00:18:27.727 --> 00:18:31.590 cost also to the community about the savings. Thank you. 00:18:31.590 --> 00:18:33.950 Thank you. Valentin 00:18:33.962 --> 00:18:35.860 hernandez followed by Gloria Coloso. 00:18:35.860 --> 00:18:39.164 Good Morning, Commissioners 00:18:39.176 --> 00:18:42.094 and staff. My name is Valentin Hernandez. I 00:18:42.106 --> 00:18:45.284 am also with the American GI Forum. I'm here to 00:18:45.296 --> 00:18:48.286 talk about the TOU which is the program that 00:18:48.298 --> 00:18:51.273 we work with. We've been doing it for, since 00:18:51.285 --> 00:18:54.472 2018, and we've done it this last year as .wWll 00:18:54.484 --> 00:18:57.332 we're hoping to continue it to 2020 and so 00:18:57.344 --> 00:19:00.536 forth. We've reached out to a lot of community, 00:19:00.548 --> 00:19:03.787 as you have seen, as you heard from my partners. 00:19:03.799 --> 00:19:06.320 We've reached out to the Oaxacan, the 00:19:06.332 --> 00:19:09.710 Hispanic, the American, and so forth and so forth. 00:19:09.722 --> 00:19:12.647 In that one year, that we've been doing, it 00:19:12.659 --> 00:19:15.636 hasn't been enough time for us to be able to 00:19:15.648 --> 00:19:18.903 reach the larger community that we want to reach 00:19:18.915 --> 00:19:22.030 out to. As you can see one of my partners does 00:19:22.042 --> 00:19:25.103 speak a dialect. Unfortunately, the other two 00:19:25.115 --> 00:19:27.952 of us, we don't. With one individual, it's 00:19:27.964 --> 00:19:31.077 hard to reach to everybody. If you give us the 00:19:31.089 --> 00:19:34.329 opportunity to continue the TOU, I can see a big 00:19:34.341 --> 00:19:37.394 growth. There's individuals that we reach out 00:19:37.406 --> 00:19:40.577 to that don't understand or don't pay attention 00:19:40.589 --> 00:19:43.573 to what their bills go up to or what they're 00:19:43.585 --> 00:19:46.430 subject to. That's when we come in effect, 00:19:46.442 --> 00:19:49.365 and we actually teach them or give them the 00:19:49.377 --> 00:19:52.745 knowledge of what's happening this year, actually, 00:19:52.757 --> 00:19:55.541 and so forth, as far as their rates going 00:19:55.553 --> 00:19:58.862 up. We're here, once again, like I stated, hoping 00:19:58.874 --> 00:20:01.862 that you guys do take the right decision and 00:20:01.874 --> 00:20:04.781 continue the time of use. I know that's the 00:20:04.793 --> 00:20:07.844 voting is coming soon, so we ask you, for the 00:20:07.856 --> 00:20:11.234 community most of all, to give us that opportunity 00:20:11.246 --> 00:20:14.038 to continue working with them. Thank you. 00:20:14.063 --> 00:20:20.627 Thank you, Gloria Coloso followed by James Berger. 00:20:20.652 --> 00:20:25.201 Thank you so much. Good morning. My name 00:20:25.213 --> 00:20:29.460 is Gloria Coloso, and I'm here today on behalf of the 00:20:29.472 --> 00:20:33.870 Ecuadorian American Chamber of Commerce and El Salvador 00:20:33.882 --> 00:20:38.056 Chamber of Commerce at the same time as I'm the Vice 00:20:38.068 --> 00:20:42.070 Chairman for the Board of Directors for Century in 00:20:42.082 --> 00:20:46.568 Orange County. I had been involved in the Energy Upgrade 00:20:46.580 --> 00:20:50.902 California since 2019, and I'm proud to be part of the 00:20:50.914 --> 00:20:55.406 program whose mission is to empower Californians to know 00:20:55.418 --> 00:20:59.733 the best energy efficiency practices and to understand 00:20:59.745 --> 00:21:04.150 the complex issue of the rate reform. By the way, thank 00:21:04.162 --> 00:21:08.641 you for allowing me to speak. I come from Orange County, 00:21:08.653 --> 00:21:12.513 but it was closer to go to San Francisco. I know 00:21:12.525 --> 00:21:17.001 you're not voting today, but it's a pleasure to be here. 00:21:17.013 --> 00:21:21.500 I am from and work with communities who are often on the 00:21:21.512 --> 00:21:25.757 margins of these conversations, so the fact that I am 00:21:25.769 --> 00:21:30.105 able to stand here today and discuss these issues with 00:21:30.117 --> 00:21:34.195 you is something that I'm very grateful for. I hope 00:21:34.207 --> 00:21:38.454 that the Commission will take to heart my thoughts on 00:21:38.466 --> 00:21:43.023 agenda item 7. I think it will be foolish and detrimental 00:21:43.035 --> 00:21:47.209 to my community and so many others if the Commission 00:21:47.221 --> 00:21:51.932 decides to withhold funding from the TOU education program. 00:21:51.944 --> 00:21:56.274 Because of my various roles in the community, I didn't 00:21:56.286 --> 00:22:00.372 have the bandwidth to apply for funding to be a TOU 00:22:00.384 --> 00:22:04.798 educator, but over the last several years, I have tried 00:22:04.810 --> 00:22:09.362 to participate as a community leader as much as possible. 00:22:09.374 --> 00:22:13.623 This campaign hits the heart of what I know to my the 00:22:13.635 --> 00:22:17.799 case of leadership experience of what people need to 00:22:17.811 --> 00:22:22.224 learn in order to responsible and participate in energy 00:22:22.236 --> 00:22:26.869 education and in being prepared to be, to have the changes 00:22:26.881 --> 00:22:31.055 that come with the rate reform. I hosted a table for 00:22:31.067 --> 00:22:35.549 EUC representatives at a large festival for Salvador and 00:22:35.561 --> 00:22:39.661 Guatemala in Southern California. Is that finished? 00:22:39.686 --> 00:22:41.716 You can just wrap up real quick. 00:22:41.740 --> 00:22:46.000 Really quick. My community often at 00:22:46.012 --> 00:22:50.047 last to know when such a changes like rate reform. 00:22:50.059 --> 00:22:54.088 I really really think that if we stop this program 00:22:54.100 --> 00:22:57.824 and we don't fund it, it's going to hurt a lot 00:22:57.836 --> 00:23:01.862 of the millions Californians that doesn't have the 00:23:01.874 --> 00:23:05.595 privilege to be here today and to know that if 00:23:05.607 --> 00:23:09.480 they do not know about these changes, it's gonna 00:23:09.492 --> 00:23:13.536 hurt in many many areas of their lives. Thank you. 00:23:13.561 --> 00:23:16.812 Thank you very much. And 00:23:16.824 --> 00:23:19.825 as Miss Coloso mentioned, item seven has been 00:23:19.837 --> 00:23:23.028 held to the February 27th meeting, but we really 00:23:23.040 --> 00:23:26.179 appreciate that you're taking the time to share 00:23:26.191 --> 00:23:29.297 your thoughts with us and we will make sure and 00:23:29.309 --> 00:23:32.428 keep them in mind as we prepare for the vote on 00:23:32.440 --> 00:23:35.423 February 27. So thank you very much. Our next 00:23:35.435 --> 00:23:38.820 speaker is James Berger followed by Kaylan Peterson 00:23:44.920 --> 00:23:49.728 Good morning. My name is James Berger. I represent the Community 00:23:49.740 --> 00:23:54.024 Action Partnership of Kern, Kern County's official anti-poverty agency. 00:23:54.036 --> 00:23:58.433 I'm here before you this morning to share some thoughts about the path we 00:23:58.445 --> 00:24:02.794 all take forward as we adapt to the changing energy future of our state. 00:24:02.806 --> 00:24:04.635 We represent and serve the most 00:24:04.647 --> 00:24:07.200 vulnerable people in Kern County. We help 00:24:07.212 --> 00:24:11.737 their children prepare for school, provide food for their tables, help them 00:24:11.749 --> 00:24:16.030 file their taxes, and weatherize their homes, so they can afford to pay 00:24:16.042 --> 00:24:20.514 their utility bills. It is clear the technology and environmental concerns 00:24:20.526 --> 00:24:24.911 necessitate discussion about the way that California gets its energy, but 00:24:24.923 --> 00:24:29.201 CAP-K is asking that you be thoughtful and balanced in your approach to 00:24:29.213 --> 00:24:33.425 change. Moving away from natural gas too rapidly could create dramatic 00:24:33.437 --> 00:24:38.138 economic impacts in our communities and then for the people that we serve. The 00:24:38.150 --> 00:24:42.775 people who would suffer most in such a scenario are the low-income vulnerable 00:24:42.787 --> 00:24:46.949 families that we help every day. We ask that you keep those people in 00:24:46.961 --> 00:24:51.475 mind as you chart a path forward into the future. Thank you for allowing me 00:24:51.487 --> 00:24:55.833 to speak and for taking time to visit us here in Kern County. Thank you. 00:24:55.858 --> 00:24:59.942 Thank you. Kalyan Petersen 00:24:59.954 --> 00:25:03.420 followed by Reverend Jaime Walter Contreras. 00:25:03.445 --> 00:25:06.038 Good morning, my name is 00:25:06.050 --> 00:25:08.478 Kalyan Petersen representing the Greater 00:25:08.490 --> 00:25:11.030 Bakersfield Chamber. We're the largest and 00:25:11.042 --> 00:25:13.416 broadest business group in Bakersfield, 00:25:13.428 --> 00:25:18.229 representing over 1,100 businesses which employ over 70,000 Californians. Today, 00:25:18.241 --> 00:25:20.843 we would like to express our strong support 00:25:20.855 --> 00:25:22.935 for energy choice, the natural gas 00:25:22.947 --> 00:25:25.600 industry, and say that we support a balanced 00:25:25.612 --> 00:25:27.923 energy future. We believe that natural 00:25:27.935 --> 00:25:32.626 gas is an integral part to our state's energy future and provides Californians 00:25:32.638 --> 00:25:35.295 with one of the most reliable and affordable 00:25:35.307 --> 00:25:37.442 forms of energy. In Bakersfield and 00:25:37.454 --> 00:25:39.582 Kern County, we're walking the talk, 00:25:39.594 --> 00:25:42.211 providing Californians with safe clean and 00:25:42.223 --> 00:25:44.635 affordable energy choices. We are all of 00:25:44.647 --> 00:25:47.130 the above, embracing all forms of energy, 00:25:47.142 --> 00:25:49.620 and we believe that natural gas is a part 00:25:49.632 --> 00:25:51.943 of that solution moving forward. We're 00:25:51.955 --> 00:25:56.394 not here to deny climate change and understand the state's goals to reduce 00:25:56.406 --> 00:25:59.184 greenhouse gas emissions. However, a phase-out 00:25:59.196 --> 00:26:01.391 of natural gas is not the answer and 00:26:01.403 --> 00:26:03.877 maintaining leadership on this issue does 00:26:03.889 --> 00:26:06.492 not need to come at the cost of good-paying 00:26:06.504 --> 00:26:11.130 jobs and businesses which will indeed affect our lower-income communities. We 00:26:11.142 --> 00:26:13.618 believe that we need an energy choice and 00:26:13.630 --> 00:26:16.059 innovation and urge you to take that and 00:26:16.071 --> 00:26:18.494 the economic impacts into consideration. 00:26:18.506 --> 00:26:21.000 We appreciate the opportunity to comment. 00:26:21.025 --> 00:26:24.330 Thank you. Reverend Contreras followed by 00:26:24.330 --> 00:26:25.770 Russell Johnson 00:26:25.795 --> 00:26:30.850 Good morning. My name is Walter Contreras. I am the vice 00:26:30.862 --> 00:26:33.745 president of NLEC. NLEC stands for National 00:26:33.757 --> 00:26:36.126 Latino Evangelical Coalition in the 00:26:36.138 --> 00:26:38.952 Western Region and Representing Clergy and 00:26:38.964 --> 00:26:41.594 Laity United for Economic Justice which 00:26:41.606 --> 00:26:46.810 stands for the words CLUE. In 2018, we begin a partnership with Energy Upgrade 00:26:46.822 --> 00:26:51.748 California in order to educate local communities about the time of use and 00:26:51.760 --> 00:26:54.513 rate reform. We engage almost exclusively 00:26:54.525 --> 00:26:56.631 with lower income multicultural 00:26:56.643 --> 00:26:59.657 communities, and for many of our constituents 00:26:59.669 --> 00:27:02.234 obtaining an understanding information 00:27:02.246 --> 00:27:07.256 about the concept of time of use, let alone how they can manage it, will be 00:27:07.268 --> 00:27:10.079 totally impossible without our engagement. 00:27:10.091 --> 00:27:12.521 We have encountered through the past 00:27:12.533 --> 00:27:15.549 of regular events that there is a significant 00:27:15.561 --> 00:27:17.733 lack of awareness related to the 00:27:17.745 --> 00:27:22.741 time of use and any upcoming changes to rate payments. There is also a high 00:27:22.753 --> 00:27:24.982 level of mistrust, particularly in 00:27:24.994 --> 00:27:27.893 communities impacted by recent immigration 00:27:27.905 --> 00:27:32.964 policies towards any agencies, even remotely affiliated with the government, 00:27:32.976 --> 00:27:38.047 which in terms of perception, definitely includes utilities. A leader at the 00:27:38.059 --> 00:27:43.453 forefront of justice so suggested we see this educational platform as an absolute 00:27:43.465 --> 00:27:48.674 essential component to the vitality of consumers and their ability to navigate 00:27:48.686 --> 00:27:50.970 the economic implications of direct 00:27:50.982 --> 00:27:53.803 reform. If the program does not continue, 00:27:53.815 --> 00:27:58.944 much of the ground that was cover over the last years by organizations across 00:27:58.956 --> 00:28:01.440 the state will be lost. Our church and 00:28:01.452 --> 00:28:04.277 community partners have all witnessed the 00:28:04.289 --> 00:28:09.292 intense amount of time and dedication required to successfully be empowered 00:28:09.304 --> 00:28:12.049 information about rate reform to a single 00:28:12.061 --> 00:28:14.556 individual, especially to communities 00:28:14.568 --> 00:28:19.634 that have culture and language barriers. Continued outreach and education is 00:28:19.646 --> 00:28:22.394 crucial for the success of entire program 00:28:22.406 --> 00:28:24.772 to re-reach those that have already 00:28:24.784 --> 00:28:27.275 been introduced to the great reform in 00:28:27.287 --> 00:28:30.120 order to establish a strong understanding 00:28:30.132 --> 00:28:35.053 of how this will impact consumers. We hope you will seriously consider the 00:28:35.065 --> 00:28:37.618 consequences of not continuing with the 00:28:37.630 --> 00:28:40.524 robust TOU community outreach program, and 00:28:40.536 --> 00:28:45.529 even more, that you will consider the immense value this kind of down earth 00:28:45.541 --> 00:28:48.295 campaign has been when, actually reaching 00:28:48.307 --> 00:28:50.678 the people successfully we engaging 00:28:50.690 --> 00:28:55.877 with. I understand you're not going to be voting for this today. I will not be 00:28:55.889 --> 00:29:01.088 able to be over there in San Francisco, but I hope you take into consideration 00:29:01.100 --> 00:29:03.653 and understand the importance of making 00:29:03.665 --> 00:29:06.492 this happen, so thank you for considering 00:29:06.504 --> 00:29:11.050 my thoughts and I will give you my my notes so that you can keep it. 00:29:11.075 --> 00:29:14.548 Thank you very much. 00:29:14.560 --> 00:29:18.120 Russell Johnson followed by Michael Turnipseed. 00:29:24.060 --> 00:29:27.606 Thank you, Russell Johnson on behalf of 00:29:27.618 --> 00:29:30.995 the Associated Builders and Contractors, and I was also 00:29:31.007 --> 00:29:34.680 asked to speak on behalf of the Kern County Hispanic Chamber 00:29:34.692 --> 00:29:38.136 of Commerce today. So for us and for our region, welcome 00:29:38.148 --> 00:29:41.757 to Kern County, thank you for coming to visit us. It's very 00:29:41.769 --> 00:29:45.149 important especially for folks that don't have a chance 00:29:45.161 --> 00:29:48.475 to often attend all the CPUC meetings, so this is very 00:29:48.487 --> 00:29:51.994 important so thank you. On behalf of our members for both 00:29:52.006 --> 00:29:55.674 organizations, we just want to point out that natural gas is 00:29:55.686 --> 00:29:59.246 an important bridge fuel, it helps many of our businesses, 00:29:59.258 --> 00:30:02.752 many of our local folks not only with the ability to cook 00:30:02.764 --> 00:30:06.208 but also run businesses. When you're talking about small 00:30:06.220 --> 00:30:09.711 restaurants that make up a lot of the Hispanic Chamber of 00:30:09.723 --> 00:30:13.044 Commerce membership, it's critical to what they do, so 00:30:13.056 --> 00:30:16.552 ensuring that natural gas as a viable fuel source is very 00:30:16.564 --> 00:30:20.254 important, but most importantly, and I think a point just to 00:30:20.266 --> 00:30:23.869 share about the importance of natural gas, when you look at 00:30:23.881 --> 00:30:27.376 when the sun doesn't shine and when the wind doesn't blow 00:30:27.388 --> 00:30:31.058 and we've got 100 degree summers here in the Central Valley, 00:30:31.070 --> 00:30:34.209 you have a challenge where we need that natural gas 00:30:34.221 --> 00:30:38.008 fueling our power plants to keep our air conditioning running. 00:30:38.020 --> 00:30:41.458 Otherwise, the summers in the Central Valley can be very 00:30:41.470 --> 00:30:45.083 very difficult with over 100 degree temperatures, so please 00:30:45.095 --> 00:30:48.478 ensure that the usability of natural gas is maintained. 00:30:48.490 --> 00:30:52.034 And let me point out one more, now the Associated Builders 00:30:52.046 --> 00:30:55.603 and Contractors, some of our members are actually building 00:30:55.615 --> 00:30:59.347 the renewable green energy projects for bio digester projects 00:30:59.359 --> 00:31:02.559 that are currently filtering, and then they're going 00:31:02.571 --> 00:31:06.058 to put that into the the natural gas pipeline, so natural 00:31:06.070 --> 00:31:09.389 gas is not only critical to energizing our region, our 00:31:09.401 --> 00:31:13.015 communities, it's also critical to helping our agricultural 00:31:13.027 --> 00:31:16.653 dairy industries provide some green solutions so thank you. 00:31:16.678 --> 00:31:18.221 Thank you. 00:31:18.220 --> 00:31:22.110 Michael Turnipseed followed by Christine Haley 00:31:22.110 --> 00:31:24.932 Thank you very much 00:31:24.944 --> 00:31:28.251 Commissioners for traveling to Bakersfield today 00:31:28.263 --> 00:31:31.159 and saving us the trip of San Francisco to 00:31:31.171 --> 00:31:34.078 see you, and for recognizing the fact that 00:31:34.090 --> 00:31:37.388 Kern County is the energy capital of California, 00:31:37.400 --> 00:31:39.899 producing over 50% of the renewables 00:31:39.911 --> 00:31:43.080 that allow the Green Revolution to happen, and 00:31:43.092 --> 00:31:45.935 for that, I kind of named Kern County the 00:31:45.947 --> 00:31:48.838 Silicon Valley of Energy because we really 00:31:48.850 --> 00:31:51.888 are the energy capital of California and the 00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:54.797 nation. We first intervened in the general 00:31:54.809 --> 00:31:57.582 rate case back in 2010, and we filed our 00:31:57.594 --> 00:32:00.488 papers to intervene again for Phase two of 00:32:00.500 --> 00:32:03.541 the current rate case. We are very concerned 00:32:03.553 --> 00:32:06.724 about a number of issues. First of all, as was 00:32:06.736 --> 00:32:09.648 mentioned, CARE customers use an excessive 00:32:09.660 --> 00:32:12.820 amount of energy because they don't understand 00:32:12.832 --> 00:32:15.599 those price signals that you try to sell 00:32:15.611 --> 00:32:18.372 through your rates. You raise the rates, 00:32:18.384 --> 00:32:21.360 they keep consuming energy. The numbers are 00:32:21.372 --> 00:32:23.927 there, the data is there. They need to 00:32:23.939 --> 00:32:27.250 understand, like the gentleman before me talked 00:32:27.262 --> 00:32:30.364 about, understanding the price points of, you 00:32:30.376 --> 00:32:33.491 know when the price goes up when you change a 00:32:33.503 --> 00:32:36.529 tier, you're supposed to cut back in energy, 00:32:36.541 --> 00:32:39.445 and the system hasn't really done that. We 00:32:39.457 --> 00:32:42.490 need simple rates that customers understand. 00:32:42.502 --> 00:32:45.344 Price signals should be very clear to the 00:32:45.356 --> 00:32:48.522 customer, but you know when it's three o'clock 00:32:48.534 --> 00:32:51.711 in the afternoon, time of use is gonna happen, 00:32:51.723 --> 00:32:54.759 you better turn off the or you're gonna have 00:32:54.771 --> 00:32:57.616 your energy, or you're gonna have. If you 00:32:57.628 --> 00:33:00.449 don't, you send very false signals to the 00:33:00.461 --> 00:33:03.698 energy market and energy producers by demanding 00:33:03.710 --> 00:33:06.468 really more energy than we need to which 00:33:06.480 --> 00:33:09.521 causes more cost which has to be paid by the 00:33:09.533 --> 00:33:12.627 ratepayers, and especially in the San Joaquin 00:33:12.639 --> 00:33:15.339 Valley, because we've talked about, for 00:33:15.351 --> 00:33:17.977 the last ten years, we pay an excessive 00:33:17.989 --> 00:33:21.100 amount of for our energy here because of the 00:33:21.112 --> 00:33:24.205 climate and because of the ill-conceived CARE 00:33:24.217 --> 00:33:27.321 structure that we've been paying since really 00:33:27.333 --> 00:33:30.160 2000. Especially since 2005 when they put 00:33:30.172 --> 00:33:33.147 the California Solar Initiative, and within 00:33:33.159 --> 00:33:36.322 five years between 2005 and 2010, the top tier 00:33:36.334 --> 00:33:39.238 for electricity in the Central Valley, and 00:33:39.250 --> 00:33:42.351 for PG&E, went from twenty two cents to forty 00:33:42.363 --> 00:33:45.003 nine point eight cents. That's when we 00:33:45.015 --> 00:33:48.038 intervened back in the old days. We need, we 00:33:48.050 --> 00:33:51.086 can't be, with the bankruptcy and everything 00:33:51.098 --> 00:33:54.195 that's going on, we really can't expect these 00:33:54.207 --> 00:33:56.911 additional costs from the bankruptcy to 00:33:56.923 --> 00:34:00.085 be fall on us users here in the valley because 00:34:00.097 --> 00:34:02.798 of climate conditions that require more 00:34:02.810 --> 00:34:05.978 energy use along the coast. And we argued back 00:34:05.990 --> 00:34:08.831 in 2010, which are really true today, the 00:34:08.843 --> 00:34:11.869 baselines really don't work. I'm glad you're 00:34:11.881 --> 00:34:14.715 nodding for that. Give me just another 30 00:34:14.727 --> 00:34:17.894 seconds. PG&E for a lot of various reasons has 00:34:17.906 --> 00:34:20.881 become the tax collector for the state, for 00:34:20.893 --> 00:34:23.854 various social programs, and simply enough, 00:34:23.866 --> 00:34:26.771 we want reliable safe energy at reasonable 00:34:26.783 --> 00:34:29.749 costs, and we don't want to continue to pay 00:34:29.761 --> 00:34:32.943 more than our fair share. Thank you very much. 00:34:32.968 --> 00:34:35.464 Thank you. Appreciate 00:34:35.476 --> 00:34:37.451 the comment. Christine Haley followed 00:34:37.450 --> 00:34:38.815 by Danielle Murphy 00:34:38.840 --> 00:34:42.052 Good morning, Commissioners. 00:34:42.064 --> 00:34:44.616 Welcome to Bakersfield. I'm Christine 00:34:44.628 --> 00:34:47.443 Haley. I'm part of the diverse work force 00:34:47.455 --> 00:34:50.080 that makes up the oil and gas industry 00:34:50.092 --> 00:34:52.970 right here in Kern County. I want to start 00:34:52.982 --> 00:34:55.672 by first acknowledging how proud we are 00:34:55.684 --> 00:34:58.501 of Letitia Perez. Thank you very much and 00:34:58.513 --> 00:35:01.141 the rest of the supervisors. Thank you 00:35:01.153 --> 00:35:06.393 and goodbye. They really featured what this industry does in this county on a 00:35:06.405 --> 00:35:09.154 statewide platform. And I look to you to 00:35:09.166 --> 00:35:12.196 make us proud as well. Make us proud perhaps 00:35:12.208 --> 00:35:15.022 in a different way. We really look to you 00:35:15.034 --> 00:35:17.859 to empower us as individual households to 00:35:17.871 --> 00:35:20.488 make decisions about the utilities that 00:35:20.500 --> 00:35:23.398 we purchase, and the way that that can be 00:35:23.410 --> 00:35:26.215 expressed from the policies that you back 00:35:26.227 --> 00:35:28.708 and the actions that you take are to 00:35:28.720 --> 00:35:31.531 preserve both natural gas and electricity 00:35:31.543 --> 00:35:34.232 as choices for us. These are matters of 00:35:34.244 --> 00:35:39.750 individual households making, we have to make affordability choices. We employ in 00:35:39.762 --> 00:35:42.576 the oil and gas industry a diverse set of 00:35:42.588 --> 00:35:45.414 people in kind of all different levels of 00:35:45.426 --> 00:35:50.862 employment that demand different levels of education, and it's important for our 00:35:50.874 --> 00:35:53.821 workforce, and those that we support around 00:35:53.833 --> 00:35:56.590 the county here, that we have choices in 00:35:56.602 --> 00:35:59.211 both natural gas and electricity, and I 00:35:59.223 --> 00:36:02.246 really appeal to you, make us proud in that 00:36:02.258 --> 00:36:05.141 regard, and please empower we Californians 00:36:05.153 --> 00:36:07.846 to maintain those choices. I thank you. 00:36:07.871 --> 00:36:09.969 All right. Thank you. 00:36:09.969 --> 00:36:12.979 Danielle Murphy followed by Richard Chapman. 00:36:13.004 --> 00:36:16.271 Hi. Good morning, excuse me, 00:36:16.283 --> 00:36:19.699 I'll be brief. Thank you for allowing me to speak 00:36:19.711 --> 00:36:23.121 to you today. It's one of my first public comment 00:36:23.133 --> 00:36:26.076 sessions. In California, we are encouraged 00:36:26.088 --> 00:36:29.358 to have a contingency plan, and in the event of 00:36:29.370 --> 00:36:32.789 an emergency, we would. Well, natural gas is that 00:36:32.801 --> 00:36:36.077 answer. Raising a teenage household is not easy 00:36:36.089 --> 00:36:39.172 as most of us know, and it shouldn't be have 00:36:39.184 --> 00:36:42.512 to be, excuse me, shouldn't have to be even more 00:36:42.524 --> 00:36:45.728 challenging, so with natural gas it is nice to 00:36:45.740 --> 00:36:49.416 have that option. We wouldn't shop at a store without 00:36:49.428 --> 00:36:52.501 options. It's nice to still have Bakersfield 00:36:52.513 --> 00:36:55.503 as an affordable place to live. Natural gas 00:36:55.515 --> 00:36:58.789 makes that possible. So I ask that you consider 00:36:58.801 --> 00:37:01.455 it as a manageable means to be fiscally 00:37:01.467 --> 00:37:04.953 responsible to my household. Thank you very much. 00:37:04.978 --> 00:37:07.029 Thank you. Richard Chapman 00:37:07.029 --> 00:37:10.029 followed by Clint Olivier 00:37:13.854 --> 00:37:19.118 Good morning, my name is Richard Chapman, President CEO of the 00:37:19.130 --> 00:37:21.885 Kern Economic Development Corporation, and 00:37:21.897 --> 00:37:24.600 I just provided a copy of our oil and gas 00:37:24.612 --> 00:37:27.235 fact sheet about the incredible economic 00:37:27.247 --> 00:37:30.076 vitality that the industry provides, and we 00:37:30.088 --> 00:37:32.910 are the Energy Capital of the US, actually, 00:37:32.922 --> 00:37:35.499 and really proud of it and really proud 00:37:35.511 --> 00:37:40.650 of our energy portfolio. In fact, energy makes up about 20% of our economy. The 00:37:40.662 --> 00:37:43.418 wages, specific to oil and gas, pay double 00:37:43.430 --> 00:37:46.198 what the county average is. And because of 00:37:46.210 --> 00:37:48.900 that, according to the National Bureau of 00:37:48.912 --> 00:37:51.613 Economic Research and Harvard University, 00:37:51.625 --> 00:37:56.846 we're in the top five in the country of upward mobility which we're really proud 00:37:56.858 --> 00:38:02.115 of. The American Dream is alive and well in Kern County. In addition to being the 00:38:02.127 --> 00:38:04.943 top five county for oil, we provide us over 00:38:04.955 --> 00:38:07.526 70% of the state's oil and gas. RNG was 00:38:07.538 --> 00:38:10.479 discussed, renewable natural gas. Geothermal, 00:38:10.491 --> 00:38:12.866 wind, and solar. 17,000 megawatts of 00:38:12.878 --> 00:38:15.633 renewable energy. And the largest wind and 00:38:15.645 --> 00:38:18.283 solar farms in the country. And I'd love 00:38:18.295 --> 00:38:21.299 if you all could attend our Kern County Energy 00:38:21.311 --> 00:38:24.135 Summit on November the 18th in Bakersfield, 00:38:24.147 --> 00:38:29.163 and you'll really get a chance for us to showcase to you, what we provide the 00:38:29.175 --> 00:38:31.796 state. We're very proud of that and look 00:38:31.808 --> 00:38:34.699 forward to the collaboration, and hopefully, 00:38:34.711 --> 00:38:39.861 not too early, put it on your calendar, November 18th. Thank you for your time. 00:38:39.886 --> 00:38:43.343 Thank you, Clint Olivier? 00:38:43.368 --> 00:38:47.478 Thank you and good morning, Commissioners. Thank you 00:38:47.490 --> 00:38:51.611 for allowing us to speak today, and thank you very much for coming to 00:38:51.623 --> 00:38:56.034 Bakersfield. My name is Clint Olivier. I represent the Business Federation 00:38:56.046 --> 00:39:00.468 of the Central Valley, or BizFed for shorts. For short. We're a grassroots 00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:04.829 alliance of more than 60 businesses and organizations representing 30,000 00:39:04.841 --> 00:39:09.024 employers and over 400,000 employees in the Central Valley. I'm joined 00:39:09.036 --> 00:39:13.450 this morning by Sarah Wilfong who represents BizFedLA, Los Angeles. That's 00:39:13.462 --> 00:39:17.769 an alliance of more than 190 business organizations representing 400,000 00:39:17.781 --> 00:39:21.893 employers with 3.5 million employees in LA County alone. We believe a 00:39:21.905 --> 00:39:26.322 thriving economy will help solve many of our area's entrenched challenges. 00:39:26.334 --> 00:39:30.451 Of course, here in the Valley, it's air quality, water, areas of high 00:39:30.463 --> 00:39:34.828 concentrated poverty. Many of our member businesses currently comply with 00:39:34.840 --> 00:39:39.250 stringent air quality and emissions regulations. Moving toward a phase-out 00:39:39.262 --> 00:39:43.683 of fossil fuels would decimate the Kern County economy, in particular, and 00:39:43.695 --> 00:39:46.273 the California economy at large. Businesses 00:39:46.285 --> 00:39:48.228 would have to shoulder thousands 00:39:48.240 --> 00:39:52.313 of dollars into new equipment costs. Now, when state decision-makers 00:39:52.325 --> 00:39:56.730 speak about electrification, they often emphasize how, over time, it would 00:39:56.742 --> 00:40:01.159 lead to lower energy bills, but what's often overlooked are the staggering 00:40:01.171 --> 00:40:05.406 upfront costs of converting existing homes to all electric end uses, so 00:40:05.418 --> 00:40:09.605 residents can at some later date see lower energy bills. A recent CBIA 00:40:09.617 --> 00:40:13.848 study suggests that it would cost about $7,000 per household to replace 00:40:13.860 --> 00:40:18.221 existing natural gas appliances and make necessary electrical upgrades to 00:40:18.233 --> 00:40:22.176 accommodate increased load and ensure public safety. The costs for 00:40:22.188 --> 00:40:26.673 businesses is even higher. Our concern is that in advancing electrification 00:40:26.685 --> 00:40:31.091 you may saddle those already struggling financially folks who are choosing 00:40:31.103 --> 00:40:35.168 between gasoline and groceries on a weekly basis, saddling them with 00:40:35.180 --> 00:40:39.416 additional expenses they can ill afford. We don't believe we can afford 00:40:39.428 --> 00:40:41.127 a one-size-fits-all solution. 00:40:41.139 --> 00:40:43.676 Californians want and need energy choice. 00:40:43.688 --> 00:40:48.039 What we have here are 750 letters that have been collected from BizFed LA 00:40:48.051 --> 00:40:52.296 and CB members, their employees, their family members and others. These 00:40:52.308 --> 00:40:56.546 letters are from people who would be impacted the most from the loss of 00:40:56.558 --> 00:41:00.691 energy choice, and so we respectfully submit those to the Commission. 00:41:00.715 --> 00:41:02.897 All right thank you. 00:41:02.922 --> 00:41:05.079 Thank you very much 00:41:05.105 --> 00:41:07.136 Okay, that's it for 00:41:07.148 --> 00:41:09.010 the speakers who signed up. Are there any 00:41:09.010 --> 00:41:16.600 speakers who would like to address the Commission at this time? Yes? 00:41:26.690 --> 00:41:30.608 Good morning. My name is Willie Rivera, and I am 00:41:30.620 --> 00:41:34.490 with the Bakersfield City Council. My phone told me to go to the 00:41:34.502 --> 00:41:38.605 wrong building, so I ended up being a few minutes late. I apologize. 00:41:38.617 --> 00:41:42.076 I want to thank you guys for being here. You're not in my 00:41:42.088 --> 00:41:46.367 district, so I'll forgive you for that, but I think it's very important 00:41:46.379 --> 00:41:50.074 that you're in Bakersfield. I think the folks in the audience 00:41:50.086 --> 00:41:53.774 and the folks in this community really appreciate that you're 00:41:53.786 --> 00:41:57.546 listening to what we have to say. I think you heard Supervisor 00:41:57.558 --> 00:42:01.358 Perez and others talk about Bakersfield and Kern County kind of 00:42:01.370 --> 00:42:05.361 leading the charge when it comes to this all-of-the-above approach 00:42:05.373 --> 00:42:09.358 in energy choice, and I think the city of Bakersfield is very much 00:42:09.370 --> 00:42:13.069 committed to that, very much in support of that, and asks for 00:42:13.081 --> 00:42:16.885 you to really consider that as you move forward. We did, as the 00:42:16.897 --> 00:42:20.891 city of Delano did, pass a resolution in May of last year, talking 00:42:20.903 --> 00:42:24.772 about this, talking about the need for choice, talking about the 00:42:24.784 --> 00:42:28.665 need to ensure that the diverse energy needs we have and diverse 00:42:28.677 --> 00:42:32.592 energy sources we have in Kern County be supported by the PUC and 00:42:32.604 --> 00:42:36.471 by the state of California. Because we get that nothing's going, 00:42:36.483 --> 00:42:40.464 nothing's going to happen overnight and I think you know that, and 00:42:40.476 --> 00:42:44.289 so, you know, when you consider that Kern County is leading the 00:42:44.301 --> 00:42:48.041 charge, more than LA, more than San Francisco, I think the one 00:42:48.053 --> 00:42:51.982 thing I'd urge you to consider is that, in my mind, that means we 00:42:51.994 --> 00:42:55.919 should be rewarded, not necessarily penalized by actions you take 00:42:55.931 --> 00:42:59.688 in the future. When we do something right and when we continue 00:42:59.700 --> 00:43:03.437 to do things right, we continue to lead by example, I think we 00:43:03.449 --> 00:43:07.378 would appreciate the flexibility from the state to continue doing 00:43:07.390 --> 00:43:11.432 that. The city of Bakersfield's right now exploring the feasibility 00:43:11.444 --> 00:43:15.259 of deploying solar and battery storage at our facilities. We're 00:43:15.271 --> 00:43:19.130 talking about over 10 megawatts of new renewable energy we could 00:43:19.142 --> 00:43:22.716 deploy in our buildings, and we think that's something that 00:43:22.728 --> 00:43:26.654 should be rewarded. So we'd ask you to keep that in mind. Be back 00:43:26.666 --> 00:43:30.484 here sometime in the future and appreciate you taking the time. 00:43:30.509 --> 00:43:32.734 Thank you very much. 00:43:35.960 --> 00:43:40.575 Good morning and thank you for being here in 00:43:40.587 --> 00:43:45.663 Bakersfield. I'm Lupe Martinez. I'm with Center on Race Poverty and 00:43:45.675 --> 00:43:50.595 the Environment. I live in Delano. And first of all, before I get 00:43:50.607 --> 00:43:55.464 way off here and forget to thank you for what you've been doing, 00:43:55.476 --> 00:44:00.468 really appreciate the fact that, let me give you a little bit of a 00:44:00.480 --> 00:44:05.708 story here. There's communities that we work with that are devastated 00:44:05.720 --> 00:44:10.493 because of no natural gas to heat their homes, and for the last 00:44:10.505 --> 00:44:15.216 five or six years, we've been working and trying to figure out 00:44:15.228 --> 00:44:19.920 how to help these communities. And thank God that we do have a 00:44:19.932 --> 00:44:25.083 Commissioner, Public Utility Commissions, that listened, that listen 00:44:25.095 --> 00:44:29.494 to these communities, and listen to the residents. Not the 00:44:29.506 --> 00:44:34.663 political, not all. Listen to the residents of what they needed. And 00:44:34.675 --> 00:44:39.669 I am very happy for that, that you took the time to listen because 00:44:39.681 --> 00:44:44.536 we have communities, right now, 170 communities, that don't have 00:44:44.548 --> 00:44:49.473 any natural gas that are still cooking with wood outside, who are 00:44:49.485 --> 00:44:54.122 heating their homes with wood, but the main thing is that the 00:44:54.134 --> 00:44:59.194 people have decided what they want, and they love electricity. They 00:44:59.206 --> 00:45:03.904 didn't choose gas but it was their choosing not us imposing or 00:45:03.916 --> 00:45:08.832 anyone imposing, it was their choosing of what they wanted to do. 00:45:08.844 --> 00:45:13.847 So I really want to thank you for that. I think the other thing is 00:45:13.859 --> 00:45:18.623 that we need to come together for a just transition from fossil 00:45:18.635 --> 00:45:23.709 fuels to clean energy, and we are not against the fossil fuels, but 00:45:23.721 --> 00:45:28.640 we know that it's on a decline, and we know that there's going to 00:45:28.652 --> 00:45:33.434 be some issues as we move forward, so we need to make sure that 00:45:33.446 --> 00:45:38.581 we all partner up to find the solution and make that just transition 00:45:38.593 --> 00:45:42.994 for everybody, so folks are not impacted. I've been a farm 00:45:43.006 --> 00:45:48.148 worker and was a farm worker for many, many, many years, since I was 00:45:48.160 --> 00:45:52.940 a kid, and I saw in agriculture that the farmer, as a farmer, I 00:45:52.952 --> 00:45:57.942 always thought we were gonna be in real trouble, we were gonna die 00:45:57.954 --> 00:46:02.880 because mechanism was coming in, tractors, we didn't die. We just 00:46:02.892 --> 00:46:07.813 need to accept the changes as they come. I know I've got pages of 00:46:07.825 --> 00:46:12.608 it, but I'll let it go thank you, and thank you for being here. 00:46:12.633 --> 00:46:13.653 Thank you for speaking. 00:46:16.058 --> 00:46:41.700 (speaks in Spanish) 00:46:41.725 --> 00:46:47.126 My name is Zandrufo Valencia and I worked with the 00:46:47.138 --> 00:46:52.630 communities up in the Tulare area like Duke or Allensworth and so on. 00:46:52.655 --> 00:47:03.150 (speaks in Spanish) 00:47:03.175 --> 00:47:07.203 I want to thank you and congratulate you for 00:47:07.215 --> 00:47:11.190 the project with the 12 communities in the county, in Tulare. 00:47:11.190 --> 00:47:21.260 (speaks in Spanish) 00:47:21.260 --> 00:47:28.859 This project is going to benefit over thousands of families. 00:47:28.859 --> 00:47:35.520 (speaks in Spanish) 00:47:35.545 --> 00:47:41.707 And so, we think it could be even millions of people that 00:47:41.719 --> 00:47:47.400 are going to benefit from this project, from what PUC has been doing. 00:47:47.425 --> 00:48:07.665 (speaks in Spanish) 00:48:07.690 --> 00:48:11.280 This will impact and help the communities directly 00:48:11.280 --> 00:48:19.510 instead of the 40,000 persons who will lose their jobs which is, anyway, so it 00:48:19.510 --> 00:48:23.653 would benefit the communities directly 00:48:23.678 --> 00:48:41.383 (speaks in Spanish) 00:48:41.408 --> 00:48:46.842 And surely, not just helping families directly, 00:48:46.854 --> 00:48:51.630 but also to help the climate change and the global change 00:48:51.630 --> 00:49:26.013 (speaks in Spanish) 00:49:26.038 --> 00:49:30.458 And also at the same time, we need to take into account 00:49:30.470 --> 00:49:34.477 that gas is not exactly the cleanest that there is. I mean, there 00:49:34.489 --> 00:49:38.643 is some problems when you burn it, when you make it and you burn it, 00:49:38.655 --> 00:49:42.880 and so we in the future we should think about getting rid of the gas. 00:49:42.880 --> 00:50:07.065 (speaks in Spanish) 00:50:07.090 --> 00:50:11.126 In the ending, certainly, 00:50:11.138 --> 00:50:15.280 this is going to help 170 houses or families 00:50:15.280 --> 00:50:16.863 with this project, PUC project. 00:50:16.888 --> 00:50:30.957 (speaks in Spanish) 00:50:30.982 --> 00:50:34.300 So let's continue with the renewable energies because 00:50:34.300 --> 00:50:37.270 that's what's going to help us with the health in the valley. Thank you. 00:50:37.295 --> 00:50:38.260 Thank you 00:50:38.260 --> 00:50:40.600 Thank you 00:50:40.625 --> 00:50:45.486 Okay, that concludes 00:50:45.498 --> 00:50:50.265 our public comment. I'm going to do a little 00:50:50.277 --> 00:50:54.614 bit of agenda management before our next 00:50:54.626 --> 00:50:59.293 item. Item 2 is held until April 16th. Item 00:50:59.305 --> 00:51:04.381 7, 20, and 21 are all held until February 27th. 00:51:04.393 --> 00:51:08.845 Item 42 will be taken up with the consent 00:51:08.857 --> 00:51:17.560 agenda, and we are going to move item 40 up from Management Reports to right now. 00:51:17.560 --> 00:51:25.740 So Roger Clugston will be presenting on item 40. 00:51:46.049 --> 00:51:49.573 Good morning, Commissioners. 00:51:49.585 --> 00:51:53.346 It's always a pleasure to have the opportunity to 00:51:53.358 --> 00:51:56.812 talk to you about Rail Safety Division of the 00:51:56.824 --> 00:52:00.742 Public Utilities Commission and the work that we're 00:52:00.754 --> 00:52:04.432 doing. And also, it's rather nice to have you in 00:52:04.444 --> 00:52:08.359 Bakersfield. I'm a resident of Bakersfield, myself, 00:52:08.371 --> 00:52:12.054 so it's kind of quite a switch to not have to go 00:52:12.066 --> 00:52:15.837 up to San Francisco for a Commission meeting. And 00:52:15.849 --> 00:52:19.751 echo what everyone has been saying here today about 00:52:19.763 --> 00:52:23.375 how grateful we are to have you come down here. 00:52:23.387 --> 00:52:27.220 I'm here to give you a report regarding the status 00:52:27.232 --> 00:52:30.926 of a project that we've been working on for some 00:52:30.938 --> 00:52:34.692 time which I presented to the Commission in April 00:52:34.704 --> 00:52:38.545 of 2016. We had been working for some time on this 00:52:38.557 --> 00:52:42.318 initiative, and it was at that point in time that 00:52:42.330 --> 00:52:45.951 I was seeking permission to try to proceed with 00:52:45.963 --> 00:52:50.090 this kind of unique experiment. One of the things that 00:52:50.102 --> 00:52:53.864 the Rail Safety Division, that we pride ourselves 00:52:53.876 --> 00:52:57.859 on, is the fact that we look beyond the regulations. 00:52:57.871 --> 00:53:00.961 We make a habit of it. I instructed with 00:53:00.973 --> 00:53:04.575 my staff, we we utilize that thought process of 00:53:04.587 --> 00:53:07.976 looking beyond the regulations at just about 00:53:07.988 --> 00:53:11.823 everything we do, and some of the initiatives that 00:53:11.835 --> 00:53:15.606 have come from that thought process have been the 00:53:15.618 --> 00:53:19.822 railroad bridge evaluation project where we are looking 00:53:19.834 --> 00:53:23.372 at railroad bridges, we're looking at railroad 00:53:23.384 --> 00:53:27.368 tunnels. It's a new, fairly new initiative. Positive 00:53:27.380 --> 00:53:30.698 train control. We did a real in-depth study 00:53:30.710 --> 00:53:34.389 on that as that was coming into vogue around the 00:53:34.401 --> 00:53:38.394 state. We also are working on other initiatives that 00:53:38.406 --> 00:53:41.941 cross not only the railroad lines but our rail 00:53:41.953 --> 00:53:45.801 transits branch and so on. We have 15 rail transit 00:53:45.813 --> 00:53:49.789 properties in California. We have about 10,000 miles 00:53:49.801 --> 00:53:53.262 of railroad tracks in California, and we have 00:53:53.274 --> 00:53:57.030 some 12,500 at-grade crossings. My staff, we have 00:53:57.042 --> 00:54:00.584 responsibility for enforcing state and federal 00:54:00.596 --> 00:54:04.424 regulations on all of those, but more importantly, 00:54:04.436 --> 00:54:08.276 at times more importantly, it's imperative that we 00:54:08.288 --> 00:54:11.821 look beyond the regulations. Try to figure out 00:54:11.833 --> 00:54:15.831 potential solutions or new layers of safety that may 00:54:15.843 --> 00:54:19.293 benefit the public and protect the public and 00:54:19.305 --> 00:54:23.143 railroad employees, rail transit employees, during 00:54:23.155 --> 00:54:26.762 their daily routine work. So before we get into 00:54:26.774 --> 00:54:30.317 some of the details I'd like to kind of little 00:54:30.329 --> 00:54:34.686 background on really how we got here. You, Commissioners, 00:54:34.698 --> 00:54:37.938 and I, we have spoke about railorad issues 00:54:37.950 --> 00:54:41.786 on numerous occasions, and I think you're all well 00:54:41.798 --> 00:54:45.570 aware of the dangers of railroad grade crossings. 00:54:45.582 --> 00:54:49.333 We see it often, unfortunately, in the news where 00:54:49.345 --> 00:54:53.334 individuals are struck by trains and so on. Vehicles 00:54:53.346 --> 00:54:57.253 versus trains, vehicles left on tracks, pedestrians 00:54:57.265 --> 00:55:00.733 walking up towards railroad tracks and making 00:55:00.745 --> 00:55:04.423 a bad decision, decide to try to beat the train. 00:55:04.435 --> 00:55:08.125 Numerous things. There's a litany of issues like 00:55:08.137 --> 00:55:11.671 that that are a great concern to us. I've been 00:55:11.683 --> 00:55:15.379 almost 47 years in railroad business, and I have 00:55:15.391 --> 00:55:18.767 been out and cleaned up after these types of 00:55:18.779 --> 00:55:22.769 accidents, and I can tell you that not only are they 00:55:22.781 --> 00:55:26.614 shocking to the families that have to live through 00:55:26.626 --> 00:55:30.472 the fact that a loved one has been hit by a train, 00:55:30.484 --> 00:55:34.013 but locomotive engineers have to live with the 00:55:34.025 --> 00:55:37.641 fact that they've run over people, that they've 00:55:37.653 --> 00:55:41.490 killed people, and the first responders have to go 00:55:41.502 --> 00:55:45.200 out and do the awful job of cleaning up what has 00:55:45.200 --> 00:55:48.427 transpired. So I think that 00:55:48.439 --> 00:55:51.749 the idea that railroad crossings are dangerous 00:55:51.761 --> 00:55:55.065 is something that universally is understood by 00:55:55.077 --> 00:55:58.251 most people. I would think. However, we have 00:55:58.263 --> 00:56:01.564 a tendency to make some rather poor decisions. 00:56:01.576 --> 00:56:04.747 Often when we see a train approaching and we 00:56:04.759 --> 00:56:08.066 see flashing lights, we decide to speed up, we 00:56:08.078 --> 00:56:11.185 don't want to be inconvenienced, we want to 00:56:11.197 --> 00:56:14.567 get around and get to the other side, get on to 00:56:14.579 --> 00:56:17.749 our business, go wherever it is we're going. 00:56:17.761 --> 00:56:20.642 Other individuals don't realize how fast 00:56:20.654 --> 00:56:23.972 trains move. They can't judge the speed of the 00:56:23.984 --> 00:56:27.286 trains, so they'll make a last-minute decision 00:56:27.298 --> 00:56:30.330 to even drive around a lowered gate and go 00:56:30.342 --> 00:56:33.791 across a crossing. So what we've been looking at 00:56:33.803 --> 00:56:37.123 is something innovative and we have found that 00:56:37.135 --> 00:56:40.222 these red pavement applications that are up 00:56:40.234 --> 00:56:43.474 on the screen now. Those are quite promising. 00:56:43.486 --> 00:56:46.790 You know, when you look at these pictures, and 00:56:46.802 --> 00:56:49.978 you see on the left the bus transit lanes of 00:56:49.990 --> 00:56:53.079 San Francisco, you know you're not supposed 00:56:53.091 --> 00:56:56.334 to drive down there. You understand if you're 00:56:56.346 --> 00:56:59.583 in your own personal vehicle you shouldn't be 00:56:59.595 --> 00:57:02.844 going down that road. The one on the right is 00:57:02.856 --> 00:57:06.367 interesting because that's also transit, but it's 00:57:06.379 --> 00:57:09.762 rail transit. But what I'd like you to remember 00:57:09.774 --> 00:57:12.798 throughout the rest of the presentation is 00:57:12.810 --> 00:57:16.057 that picture on the right. Those are railroad 00:57:16.069 --> 00:57:19.372 tracks that have been painted red over the top 00:57:19.384 --> 00:57:22.417 of them. Basically, in a dynamic envelope, 00:57:22.429 --> 00:57:25.667 which we'll talk more. Now, just keep that in 00:57:25.679 --> 00:57:29.000 mind as we as we go through this presentation. 00:57:29.910 --> 00:57:34.390 One thing about utilizing something like red payment. 00:57:34.402 --> 00:57:39.019 When you have instances like what is depicted here, where you have a road 00:57:39.031 --> 00:57:43.579 that runs parallel to a railroad track, and then you have something like 00:57:43.591 --> 00:57:47.902 semi-truck where they're trying to come up. Maybe you've only got 50 00:57:47.914 --> 00:57:52.397 feet from the limit line of the stop sign to the back, up to the track. 00:57:52.409 --> 00:57:56.904 Well, often we have incidents where big rigs are hit there because they 00:57:56.916 --> 00:58:01.592 are extending over it and they can't really tell exactly where they're at. 00:58:01.604 --> 00:58:05.980 They may not know the exact distance where they're at. They're having 00:58:05.980 --> 00:58:10.678 to guess that. And so, if we 00:58:10.690 --> 00:58:15.700 were to be able to utilize this type of MMA, which 00:58:15.700 --> 00:58:18.783 is an adhesive material that's 00:58:18.795 --> 00:58:22.333 impregnated with reflectorized materials and so on that 00:58:22.345 --> 00:58:25.687 adheres to concrete and and to asphalt and so on. If 00:58:25.699 --> 00:58:29.116 we were to apply that, apply that in a situation like 00:58:29.128 --> 00:58:32.404 this, it might be possible for that truck driver to 00:58:32.416 --> 00:58:36.147 understand that, you know, he's in a danger zone. Anything 00:58:36.159 --> 00:58:39.378 that's within that red parameter, you're gonna get 00:58:39.390 --> 00:58:42.810 hit, you're gonna get hurt, you're gonna get injured. 00:58:44.970 --> 00:58:47.721 And also, when it comes 00:58:47.733 --> 00:58:50.298 to this kind of thing, I first started 00:58:50.310 --> 00:58:55.057 working on this with State Senator Dean Flores some years ago. We had a 00:58:55.069 --> 00:58:57.362 crossing just north of Bakersfield, 00:58:57.374 --> 00:59:00.338 Cratsmire Road, which was considered one of 00:59:00.350 --> 00:59:03.110 the deadliest crossings in California for 00:59:03.122 --> 00:59:05.631 some time. One of the approaches that 00:59:05.643 --> 00:59:08.395 we made in discussing that was, you know, 00:59:08.407 --> 00:59:10.710 good Lord, let's just paint, let's 00:59:10.722 --> 00:59:13.481 just put some paint all the way across it 00:59:13.493 --> 00:59:16.066 so people know that this is, you know, 00:59:16.078 --> 00:59:18.834 you've got two roads converging on top of 00:59:18.846 --> 00:59:21.482 the crossing, and then 50 feet to Santa 00:59:21.494 --> 00:59:26.447 Fe Avenue that ran parallel. So we kicked around this idea of applications 00:59:26.459 --> 00:59:31.591 of pavement markings and how to utilize that. So in our discussions, what led 00:59:31.603 --> 00:59:36.682 me to think was that, you know, this is really novel, but white paints isn't 00:59:36.694 --> 00:59:41.435 going to do it. It needs to be a bright color, it needs to be red. Red, 00:59:41.447 --> 00:59:44.275 universally, I think people understand, as 00:59:44.287 --> 00:59:46.928 well, that that means danger. You know, 00:59:46.940 --> 00:59:51.943 I think that's pretty well thought of. You know, the a red curb, that means 00:59:51.955 --> 00:59:57.036 don't park there. A stop sign it means to stop. But if you were to take, and 00:59:57.048 --> 01:00:02.057 this is the way I described it in 2016, if you were to take a red twenty by 01:00:02.069 --> 01:00:04.501 twenty square and stick it out in the 01:00:04.513 --> 01:00:07.354 middle of a green field, would you really 01:00:07.366 --> 01:00:12.691 go out and stand in the middle of it and wonder why it's there? No. You probably 01:00:12.703 --> 01:00:17.579 wouldn't. You'd probably know that you're not supposed to be there. So we 01:00:17.591 --> 01:00:22.658 started investigating, trying to figure out, you know, if this had ever been 01:00:22.670 --> 01:00:25.494 done before. And sure enough, in the state 01:00:25.506 --> 01:00:27.881 of Florida, they had attempted this 01:00:27.893 --> 01:00:30.643 back in 2014. I was absolutely fascinated 01:00:30.655 --> 01:00:32.957 and come to find out that they did 01:00:32.969 --> 01:00:35.726 it, they actually did a study, beforehand 01:00:35.738 --> 01:00:37.979 and after. They utilized a yellow 01:00:37.991 --> 01:00:43.062 paint though. Not red but yellow. But they found some significant changes in 01:00:43.074 --> 01:00:45.900 driver behavior which is really what we're 01:00:45.912 --> 01:00:48.288 after, you know, and utilizing this 01:00:48.300 --> 01:00:53.363 experiment. That's what we're focusing on is a change in driver behavior. We 01:00:53.375 --> 01:00:56.131 talk about the dynamic envelope, what I'm 01:00:56.143 --> 01:00:58.582 getting at is exactly this, and this 01:00:58.594 --> 01:01:03.728 really exemplifies it well. If you look, you'll see the grade crossing at the 01:01:03.740 --> 01:01:09.019 top, and you see the demarcation lines at the end of the dynamic envelope. Down 01:01:09.031 --> 01:01:14.295 below, you'll see what that encompasses so what we're talking about is six feet 01:01:14.307 --> 01:01:19.451 on each side of the crossing. Six feet all the way across. Painting its solid 01:01:19.463 --> 01:01:24.336 all the way across, outlined in white. Anything within that area will be, 01:01:24.348 --> 01:01:29.630 you're in danger of being struck by the train. You will be struck by the train. 01:01:32.020 --> 01:01:36.877 Now, we have thought about this in many, many 01:01:36.889 --> 01:01:41.377 venues, and when we discovered the Florida DOT experiment, 01:01:41.389 --> 01:01:45.948 this is something that they had come up with. Cutting us up 01:01:45.960 --> 01:01:50.606 into four zones, showing where the dangers are really at. So 01:01:50.618 --> 01:01:55.554 in essence, the only zone where you're going to be struck by the 01:01:55.566 --> 01:02:00.134 train is going to be the red one, but especially crossings, 01:02:00.146 --> 01:02:04.631 they're not all at 90-degree angles or anything like that, 01:02:04.643 --> 01:02:09.292 you know, they come in at 31 degrees, all kinds of things go 01:02:09.304 --> 01:02:14.163 on there. So trying to keep the traffic back at a safe distance 01:02:14.175 --> 01:02:18.512 is important. However, each one of these zones, they saw 01:02:18.524 --> 01:02:23.084 a significant difference in driver behavior. They were, the 01:02:23.096 --> 01:02:27.668 numbers change drastically on people stopping on top of the 01:02:27.680 --> 01:02:32.465 crossings which we see a lot of. We see it here in Bakersfield 01:02:32.477 --> 01:02:37.198 in many places where they queue up. 12,500 at grade crossings 01:02:37.210 --> 01:02:42.154 in this state. There's tons of locations where there's problems. 01:02:42.166 --> 01:02:46.512 But we may not necessarily have recorded data about near 01:02:46.524 --> 01:02:51.078 misses, about all the incidents that are out there. I think 01:02:51.090 --> 01:02:55.883 that the data that is generated is fairly subjective, and it's 01:02:55.895 --> 01:03:00.607 not very reflective of the true case. I know, our daily work, 01:03:00.619 --> 01:03:05.190 in all the years I've been in this business, I've seen many 01:03:05.202 --> 01:03:09.834 incidents take place out there that lo and behold were never 01:03:09.846 --> 01:03:14.490 recorded. I've had to go back and look for particular things 01:03:14.502 --> 01:03:19.217 that I was involved in. Accidents that I investigated, things 01:03:19.229 --> 01:03:23.574 of that nature, in my years on the railroad, and there's 01:03:23.586 --> 01:03:28.293 no record of it. So relying on empirical data to dictate what 01:03:28.305 --> 01:03:32.719 needs to be done or if this is something viable is really 01:03:32.731 --> 01:03:37.292 not very comprehensive at this point. So I think we need to 01:03:37.304 --> 01:03:42.028 think outside the box a little bit here. We need to think, we 01:03:42.040 --> 01:03:46.674 really need to look on the regulations, beyond the norm, and 01:03:46.686 --> 01:03:51.484 look at ways to try come up with solutions. Here's the results 01:03:51.496 --> 01:03:56.060 here. That what they saw, here's the testing that they did, 01:03:56.072 --> 01:04:00.800 and how much time they spent watching driver behavior at that 01:04:00.800 --> 01:04:06.918 crossing in Florida. And there 01:04:06.930 --> 01:04:12.559 was a substantive change. I think it's pretty 01:04:12.559 --> 01:04:16.734 reflective of a really effective study. 01:04:16.746 --> 01:04:20.861 And really, only a hundred and twelve hours. You know, I 01:04:20.873 --> 01:04:25.199 think if they'd've went longer, that the numbers would have 01:04:25.211 --> 01:04:29.260 probably been much more favorable, that this experiment 01:04:29.272 --> 01:04:33.667 is, was indeed worth trying. So why not do it in California? 01:04:33.679 --> 01:04:37.435 Now, this is the crossing in Florida. Again, it was 01:04:37.447 --> 01:04:41.632 painted yellow not red. I'd asked my staff to do this, so 01:04:41.644 --> 01:04:45.623 you could get a good visual as to what this would look 01:04:45.635 --> 01:04:49.956 like painted red. I would think that most people would know 01:04:49.968 --> 01:04:54.230 that they should not stop their vehicles on this crossing. 01:04:54.242 --> 01:04:58.280 So why not do in California? Well, this Commission gave 01:04:58.292 --> 01:05:02.269 me permission to go ahead and try, and so for the last 01:05:02.281 --> 01:05:06.678 four years, we've been working very hard to trying to figure 01:05:06.690 --> 01:05:10.593 out how to get this done. One of the problems that we 01:05:10.605 --> 01:05:15.008 ran into was trying to get people on board with the project. 01:05:15.020 --> 01:05:18.928 I've have to get the railroad on board. I have to get 01:05:18.940 --> 01:05:23.111 the municipality or the county on board. Depending on who 01:05:23.123 --> 01:05:27.162 the road owner is or who maintains it or both. Well, we 01:05:27.174 --> 01:05:31.352 fortunately had the opportunity to partner with CalTrans. 01:05:31.364 --> 01:05:35.553 CalTrans is division of research, innovation, and systems 01:05:35.565 --> 01:05:39.379 information, and I cannot speak highly enough of how 01:05:39.391 --> 01:05:43.504 great partners these folks have been, how hard they have 01:05:43.516 --> 01:05:47.552 worked with us to try to bring this to fruition. We set 01:05:47.564 --> 01:05:51.757 out together and try and figure out how how to bring this 01:05:51.769 --> 01:05:55.870 about, and of course, the first thing we needed to do is 01:05:55.882 --> 01:06:00.066 to get stakeholders on board. That's very problematic. We 01:06:00.078 --> 01:06:03.968 have either the railroad or the municipality or other 01:06:03.980 --> 01:06:08.243 entities involved in the maintenance of the road that just 01:06:08.255 --> 01:06:12.287 were not willing to do it. So we searched and searched. 01:06:12.299 --> 01:06:16.487 We came up a number of possible possibilities and pursued 01:06:16.499 --> 01:06:20.681 those and really ran into a brick wall almost every time. 01:06:20.693 --> 01:06:24.959 So this took months trying to figure out how to go forward 01:06:24.984 --> 01:06:28.849 So Roger, I don't want to 01:06:28.861 --> 01:06:32.585 steal your thunder, but can you go to slide, the 01:06:32.597 --> 01:06:36.468 slide showing SR 120. Because I think that's great 01:06:36.480 --> 01:06:40.439 visual for people to focus on while you're talking. 01:06:40.464 --> 01:06:45.673 Well, and really, this is one the reasons that we selected this 01:06:45.685 --> 01:06:50.652 particular crossing. Now, the the layer that we put of red over there, you'll 01:06:50.664 --> 01:06:53.451 see. Now, the lower lane in the photograph, 01:06:53.463 --> 01:06:55.816 that is an eastbound lane. The upper 01:06:55.828 --> 01:06:58.494 lane is a westbound lane. State Route 120 01:06:58.506 --> 01:07:00.865 in Escalon is the one that we chose. 01:07:00.877 --> 01:07:05.898 City is on board, the railroad, they're willing to go along with us. This is a 01:07:05.910 --> 01:07:10.816 great location because of the fact that at Escalon there are fourteen Amtrak 01:07:10.828 --> 01:07:13.489 trains a day that run through there at 79 01:07:13.501 --> 01:07:16.110 miles an hour. There's no station there. 01:07:16.122 --> 01:07:21.162 Cuts right through the middle of that small town. They also have approximately 01:07:21.174 --> 01:07:23.640 40 freight trains that go through there 01:07:23.652 --> 01:07:26.385 at track speed, approximately 60 miles an 01:07:26.397 --> 01:07:29.124 hour, depending on the loads on the train. 01:07:29.136 --> 01:07:31.492 So you've got a lot of train traffic 01:07:31.504 --> 01:07:36.594 through there. State Route 120 is well used because of the fact that it goes up 01:07:36.606 --> 01:07:39.273 towards Yosemite, so a lot of people take 01:07:39.285 --> 01:07:41.835 it, summertime, to go up for vacations, 01:07:41.847 --> 01:07:46.743 the wintertime to go up for skiing. It's heavily traveled, it's also lots of 01:07:46.755 --> 01:07:49.420 trucking and so on. But if you notice the 01:07:49.432 --> 01:07:52.172 lanes there, you'll see that they dwindled 01:07:52.184 --> 01:07:56.894 down, the bottom one, the eastbound lane, it comes down to one lane, then 01:07:56.906 --> 01:08:01.947 there's also turn lanes involved. You've got a median there, the top lane, the 01:08:01.959 --> 01:08:07.165 westbound lane, it merges into two lanes as it goes across, and then, at the very 01:08:07.177 --> 01:08:09.901 top there, you'll see a pedestrian walkway 01:08:09.913 --> 01:08:12.141 that was installed, okay? Which is 01:08:12.153 --> 01:08:14.938 great if they would use it, but most often, 01:08:14.950 --> 01:08:17.429 people don't want to take that detour, 01:08:17.441 --> 01:08:22.410 so they walk across the crossing, go duck under the gates, go around the back 01:08:22.422 --> 01:08:27.504 of the gates when the trains are coming, and so on. Now, we don't have a lot of 01:08:27.516 --> 01:08:30.242 real hardcore data here, but I have spoken 01:08:30.254 --> 01:08:32.546 with the city officials there, with 01:08:32.558 --> 01:08:37.582 their Chief of Police, the fire chief, talked to them about what they've seen. 01:08:37.594 --> 01:08:42.758 Pretty problematic. Also, too, there's a tendency, at times, for trains to block 01:08:42.770 --> 01:08:45.679 that crossing, and in the event of emergency, 01:08:45.691 --> 01:08:47.914 where they have to get fire trucks 01:08:47.926 --> 01:08:52.891 and ambulances and so on back and forth. That's very problematic. There's not 01:08:52.903 --> 01:08:55.625 that many grade crossings in this location 01:08:55.637 --> 01:08:58.245 and they're a little hard to get to when 01:08:58.257 --> 01:09:00.921 one is blocked. So this seems like a good 01:09:00.933 --> 01:09:03.291 viable candidate, so we went forward 01:09:03.303 --> 01:09:08.068 with this dreasy, the Caltrans, they told me that I needed to petition the 01:09:08.080 --> 01:09:10.934 California Traffic Control Device Committee, 01:09:10.946 --> 01:09:13.367 who has authority over the California 01:09:13.379 --> 01:09:16.102 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. 01:09:16.114 --> 01:09:18.404 So I made a presentation to them on 01:09:18.416 --> 01:09:23.390 August of 2018. They had a little bit of a problem with the idea of using red 01:09:23.390 --> 01:09:27.392 paint because they felt that that was slated for rail 01:09:27.404 --> 01:09:31.195 transit, bus transit, just transit lines, in general, but they told 01:09:31.207 --> 01:09:35.048 me, said, well, you know, we'll agree, and you can go ahead with the 01:09:35.060 --> 01:09:38.913 red or yellow, but you're going to have to go by the Federal Highway 01:09:38.925 --> 01:09:43.028 Administration first and get their permission. Subsequently, we found out 01:09:43.040 --> 01:09:47.322 that the state of Florida, when they did their tests, did not get permission 01:09:47.334 --> 01:09:51.053 from the Federal Highway Administration to do their tests. Federal 01:09:51.065 --> 01:09:55.130 Highway Administration also did not believe that the study that was done 01:09:55.130 --> 01:10:00.347 was very conclusive or a very 01:10:00.359 --> 01:10:05.480 good one, plainly. So we petitioned the Federal 01:10:05.480 --> 01:10:08.509 Highway Administration for 01:10:08.521 --> 01:10:11.630 red paint. We waited some many weeks and got a 01:10:11.630 --> 01:10:17.750 response back and we were, they rejected us. They said no. So I tried again and 01:10:17.750 --> 01:10:23.743 this time I tried for yellow paint and waited, again, for 01:10:23.755 --> 01:10:29.443 a number of weeks, and they rejected us, once again, saying no. I had a 01:10:29.455 --> 01:10:35.296 number of calls, conference calls, with them and everything, and the last 01:10:35.308 --> 01:10:41.002 one that we had was in December, and they had asked for some data, that 01:10:41.014 --> 01:10:47.168 they wanted accident data. We supplied them everything we had, and they said, 01:10:47.180 --> 01:10:52.951 well, we have all of these other approved applications, pavement marking 01:10:52.963 --> 01:10:58.648 applications, that you need to utilize first before we can allow you to 01:10:58.660 --> 01:11:04.437 experiment. Well, my point of view was that, if I try to do all of that, 01:11:04.449 --> 01:11:10.127 that I'll being 97 years old before we'll ever be able to get around to 01:11:10.139 --> 01:11:16.224 trying to do this experiment. And their only problem with it is the pavement 01:11:16.236 --> 01:11:21.920 color. Yellow is utilized for median lines and loading zones and things 01:11:21.932 --> 01:11:27.786 of that nature, other no parking areas and all of that. Now, the state of 01:11:27.798 --> 01:11:31.100 Florida has proceeded. They had a project 01:11:31.112 --> 01:11:33.953 that was passed by the Legislature, 01:11:33.965 --> 01:11:39.183 they approved sixty million dollars for them to go forward with a 01:11:39.195 --> 01:11:42.501 painting project on some 4,000 crossings. 01:11:42.513 --> 01:11:45.199 They were gonna utilize yellow as 01:11:45.211 --> 01:11:50.989 they did in the study in 2014. Well, we found out this week that Federal 01:11:51.001 --> 01:11:56.989 Highway Administration told them no. You can't use a color on the pavement. 01:11:57.001 --> 01:12:02.765 You can use white, but you can't use the color, and then it has to be an 01:12:02.777 --> 01:12:08.771 approved MUTCD application, you know, paint application. Well, that defeats 01:12:08.783 --> 01:12:14.394 the whole purpose of trying this. The whole idea is to see what effect 01:12:14.406 --> 01:12:20.161 the color red in the dynamic envelope of an at-grade crossing has on the 01:12:20.173 --> 01:12:26.255 public to inform them that they are in a dangerous area. So there's a number 01:12:26.267 --> 01:12:31.790 of different treatments that are out there. This is just one example, 01:12:31.802 --> 01:12:37.654 lots of different companies make this MMA, this paint, but this is really 01:12:37.666 --> 01:12:43.656 what it looks like. The really important thing here, when you come to grade 01:12:43.668 --> 01:12:49.274 crossing safety, now, if you want to add warning bells, if you want to 01:12:49.286 --> 01:12:55.124 add more, a cantilever with lights on it, if you want anything like that, 01:12:55.136 --> 01:13:00.986 you're talking a substantial amount of money for one railroad grade cost. 01:13:00.998 --> 01:13:06.754 So to take, basically, to take a simple two-lane crossing that has cross 01:13:06.766 --> 01:13:12.534 bucks, which are just the railroad x warning posts, on each side, that's 01:13:12.546 --> 01:13:15.928 all it has, to upgrade that to a four-lane 01:13:15.940 --> 01:13:18.545 road and put in flashers, gates, 01:13:18.557 --> 01:13:24.173 and all of that, you're looking at almost seven million dollars, okay? 01:13:24.198 --> 01:13:25.400 per crossing? 01:13:25.424 --> 01:13:26.399 I'm sorry 01:13:26.425 --> 01:13:27.756 seven million dollars per crossing 01:13:27.780 --> 01:13:31.646 Per crossing, per crossing, yes, 01:13:31.658 --> 01:13:35.459 and you know, a grade separation crossing, today, 01:13:35.471 --> 01:13:39.038 can run you twice that much or more to have an 01:13:39.050 --> 01:13:42.630 overpass or underpass and eliminate the cross. 01:13:42.655 --> 01:13:46.061 So what I hear you 01:13:46.073 --> 01:13:49.642 saying is that we have kind of two fundamental 01:13:49.654 --> 01:13:52.990 limitations. We have funding limitation and 01:13:53.002 --> 01:13:56.197 we also have the FHA resisting using red. 01:13:56.222 --> 01:13:59.318 Well, and really, the 01:13:59.330 --> 01:14:02.665 funding aspect of it, when you come to this 01:14:02.677 --> 01:14:06.234 paint, let's touch that first. This product is 01:14:06.246 --> 01:14:09.587 $2 a square foot at cost. It's $7 in labor. 01:14:09.612 --> 01:14:12.581 So the crossing at Escalon which is about 01:14:12.593 --> 01:14:15.857 4500 square feet, actually runs a little over 01:14:15.869 --> 01:14:18.630 $40,000 to apply this, and in the large 01:14:18.642 --> 01:14:21.842 scope of other applications that can be put 01:14:21.854 --> 01:14:24.968 up there, other safety warning devices that 01:14:24.980 --> 01:14:28.105 could be put up there, that's pretty cheap. 01:14:28.117 --> 01:14:30.881 You can't even hardly carpet your room, 01:14:30.893 --> 01:14:33.954 your house for two dollars a square foot. 01:14:33.979 --> 01:14:38.741 Yeah, so that limitation has a solution. 01:14:39.566 --> 01:14:42.669 Well and yes it does, and I 01:14:42.681 --> 01:14:45.597 have to admit that you folks have been very 01:14:45.609 --> 01:14:48.520 helpful too. Commissioner Guzman Aceves has 01:14:48.532 --> 01:14:51.321 reached out and helped me with talking to 01:14:51.346 --> 01:14:56.508 politicians and the Governor's office, trying to get them on board. What we're 01:14:56.520 --> 01:15:01.563 trying to do is, hopefully, to be able to have enough political influence to 01:15:01.575 --> 01:15:06.350 compel FHWA to acquiesce and allow us to go ahead utilize this, try this 01:15:06.362 --> 01:15:09.235 experiment one time. I also have University 01:15:09.247 --> 01:15:11.739 of California at Berkeley involved in 01:15:11.751 --> 01:15:14.550 this. We have a, dreasy, through CalTrans, 01:15:14.562 --> 01:15:16.916 has a contract with them. They will 01:15:16.928 --> 01:15:21.843 do the testing before and after. The cost part of it, even beign SF's, one 01:15:21.855 --> 01:15:26.895 of their officers told me, you know, the money's not a big issue for us, you 01:15:26.907 --> 01:15:32.091 know, the cost of it's not a big issue for us, but I think that, you know, the 01:15:32.103 --> 01:15:37.397 funding and all that can be acquired to do this, but imagine this, imagine this. 01:15:37.409 --> 01:15:42.388 You know, our 130 program that we have crossing funding, where we do all of 01:15:42.400 --> 01:15:47.570 these upgrades and so on, imagine this: in the years to come down the road, we 01:15:47.582 --> 01:15:52.567 find that this is successful, okay, and then there comes a day where we can 01:15:52.579 --> 01:15:57.680 take and say, when we are going to allow you to have 130 crossing funds, this 01:15:57.692 --> 01:16:02.740 is a part of it. 40 grand, whatever the cost is, may even be less at the end 01:16:02.752 --> 01:16:07.990 of the day. It can be applied and ready to use within a few hours, doesn't take 01:16:08.002 --> 01:16:13.056 long at all. It's not going to be like a long closure or anything like that. 01:16:13.080 --> 01:16:15.518 Okay. Thank you. 01:16:15.530 --> 01:16:18.039 Do any other Commissioners have questions? 01:16:18.064 --> 01:16:23.620 Yes. More of a comment, I suppose, but I just want 01:16:23.632 --> 01:16:28.925 to thank you, Roger, for your work on this and continued effort. I know it's 01:16:28.937 --> 01:16:31.534 been a much bigger frustration for you 01:16:31.546 --> 01:16:34.568 than us even, but I know that Commissioner 01:16:34.580 --> 01:16:40.016 Shiroma and I and Commissioner Randolph will be heading to DC over the weekend 01:16:40.028 --> 01:16:43.036 and are lining up meetings with some of our 01:16:43.048 --> 01:16:45.793 congressional delegation, on both sides 01:16:45.805 --> 01:16:51.170 of the House, to really encourage them to get involved in the Federal Highway 01:16:51.182 --> 01:16:56.334 Administration's approval of this pilot. And just, I know I've shared this 01:16:56.346 --> 01:17:01.785 personal unfortunate experience, just a month ago, heading down to Hanford, I, 01:17:01.797 --> 01:17:04.320 unfortunately, was on Amtrak that did 01:17:04.332 --> 01:17:07.346 strike a pedestrian in the town of Empire. 01:17:07.358 --> 01:17:12.712 Which very much looks like the situation in Escalon. And that was a fatality. 01:17:12.724 --> 01:17:18.210 And I just feel, you know, last year, we had over 50 deaths on these crossings, 01:17:18.222 --> 01:17:23.583 and anything we can attempt, even if it's a marginal benefit, if it saves one 01:17:23.595 --> 01:17:29.009 life for $40,000, it's really something we should be pursuing, and I'm hopeful 01:17:29.021 --> 01:17:31.619 that our congressional delegation will 01:17:31.631 --> 01:17:34.585 agree with us, and I just want to let you 01:17:34.597 --> 01:17:39.811 know we should check back in after to see if we have some success there, to 01:17:39.823 --> 01:17:43.043 really have the Federal Highway Administration 01:17:43.055 --> 01:17:45.462 look at this a little differently. 01:17:45.487 --> 01:17:52.503 Thank you. And I would also ask if it's possible that we, 01:17:52.515 --> 01:17:59.729 or you as Commissioners, would assist and possibly, let's explore an OIR, see 01:17:59.741 --> 01:18:07.226 if that would be a potential remedy. But we can discuss that further, but bottom 01:18:07.238 --> 01:18:11.113 line is, you know, I think it's incumbent 01:18:11.125 --> 01:18:14.087 upon us as safety professionals 01:18:14.112 --> 01:18:17.755 to try to see if this experiment can come to fruition. If it 01:18:17.767 --> 01:18:21.243 saves one or two lives then it's certainly well worth it. 01:18:21.881 --> 01:18:23.620 Absolutely well 01:18:23.620 --> 01:18:26.438 Thank you for your work on 01:18:26.450 --> 01:18:29.280 that, and we will continue to work both with you and 01:18:29.280 --> 01:18:35.830 and whatever advocacy we can do on the federal level, so thank you very much. 01:18:35.830 --> 01:18:39.003 thank you for your time 01:18:39.028 --> 01:18:42.613 Okay, the next 01:18:42.625 --> 01:18:46.590 item on our agenda is our consent agenda. 01:18:46.590 --> 01:18:51.429 Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda? 01:18:51.429 --> 01:18:54.059 so moved 01:18:54.329 --> 01:18:56.299 Is there a second? 01:18:56.324 --> 01:18:57.309 Second. 01:18:57.334 --> 01:19:00.287 Okay, can you call the roll on that? 01:19:10.530 --> 01:19:12.339 Regarding the consent agenda, 01:19:12.351 --> 01:19:14.489 Commissioner Shiroma? Aye 01:19:14.514 --> 01:19:15.809 Commissioner Guzman Aceves? 01:19:15.810 --> 01:19:16.874 Aye Commissioner 01:19:16.886 --> 01:19:17.833 Rechtschaffen? Aye. 01:19:17.857 --> 01:19:19.808 Commissioner Randolph? 01:19:19.809 --> 01:19:22.643 Aye. Okay and Commissioner Shiroma wanted 01:19:22.655 --> 01:19:25.230 to make remarks on the consent agenda. 01:19:25.230 --> 01:19:29.470 Yes. Yes, thank you, 01:19:29.482 --> 01:19:34.300 President Randolph filling in for President Batjer. 01:19:34.300 --> 01:19:36.284 Filling in for President 01:19:36.296 --> 01:19:38.013 Batjer who was unable to be with us today. 01:19:38.038 --> 01:19:41.614 Yes, I'd like to speak 01:19:41.626 --> 01:19:45.137 on agenda item eight which is the decision we 01:19:45.149 --> 01:19:48.654 just voted out that is replacing the recently 01:19:48.666 --> 01:19:52.489 reduced federal support for the Lifeline Wireline 01:19:52.501 --> 01:19:55.927 Voice Services. Now, as we know through this 01:19:55.939 --> 01:19:59.759 proceeding, the Federal Communications Commission 01:19:59.771 --> 01:20:03.126 had reduced the Federal Lifeline subsidy by 01:20:03.138 --> 01:20:06.428 two dollars a month. This decision focuses 01:20:06.440 --> 01:20:09.865 specifically on those that have the Wireline 01:20:09.877 --> 01:20:13.619 Lifeline service. Those providers. Most of whom, 01:20:13.631 --> 01:20:17.138 who operate as cost of service utilities, and 01:20:17.150 --> 01:20:20.974 they tend to be smaller utilities. These wireline 01:20:20.986 --> 01:20:24.719 providers also serve as carriers of last resort, 01:20:24.731 --> 01:20:28.324 in certain geographic areas, and that's so key 01:20:28.336 --> 01:20:31.998 these days, especially as we have high wildfire 01:20:32.010 --> 01:20:35.532 zones. And the Lifeline participants in rural 01:20:35.544 --> 01:20:39.121 areas may not have access to reliable wireless 01:20:39.133 --> 01:20:42.797 services and that further reduces their options 01:20:42.809 --> 01:20:46.239 and for affordable communication options. So 01:20:46.251 --> 01:20:50.075 through this decision, we are ensuring that those 01:20:50.087 --> 01:20:53.819 vulnerable customers can reach critical services 01:20:53.831 --> 01:20:57.346 particularly in the face of crisis. And there 01:20:57.358 --> 01:21:01.097 are over a million such customers in California. 01:21:01.109 --> 01:21:04.476 I do want to thank the Lifeline team at the 01:21:04.488 --> 01:21:08.143 CPUC that worked on this item number eight, and 01:21:08.155 --> 01:21:11.668 that includes Judge Katherine McDonald, Judge 01:21:11.680 --> 01:21:14.958 Stephanie Wong, Cindy Yoon from Legal, and 01:21:14.970 --> 01:21:18.566 then Jonathan Lakritz, Clover Selden and Shari 01:21:18.578 --> 01:21:22.465 Wurster and Steven Climber from the Communications 01:21:22.477 --> 01:21:25.993 Division. And then I also would like to speak 01:21:26.005 --> 01:21:29.669 on item 42, which, where we just appointed Lisa 01:21:29.681 --> 01:21:33.050 Castellone and Paul Irwin to the Low-Income 01:21:33.050 --> 01:21:37.493 Oversight Board, and we had Larry Gross 01:21:37.505 --> 01:21:41.611 and Charley Toledo vacate their positions on the LIOB, and 01:21:41.623 --> 01:21:46.072 we had a chance to thank them at a previous Commission meeting, 01:21:46.084 --> 01:21:50.057 and I just wanted to highlight that Miss Lisa Castellone 01:21:50.069 --> 01:21:54.515 is a community development and travel manager for the nonprofit 01:21:54.527 --> 01:21:58.706 organization, Grid Alternatives, where she works with local 01:21:58.718 --> 01:22:03.030 governments and nonprofit agencies to complete solar projects 01:22:03.042 --> 01:22:07.018 in the Inland Empire Service area, and in this role, she 01:22:07.030 --> 01:22:11.265 works with seven tribal nations to oversee solar projects in 01:22:11.277 --> 01:22:15.733 tribal lands, while working with individuals to apply for solar 01:22:15.745 --> 01:22:19.638 programs, advocate and cross refer to in order to share 01:22:19.650 --> 01:22:24.043 resources on low income programs, and she resides in Riverside 01:22:24.055 --> 01:22:28.153 County. So we'll have an Inland Empire representative. Mr. 01:22:28.165 --> 01:22:32.485 Paul Irwin, who is here today, thank you, Paul, thank you, is 01:22:32.497 --> 01:22:36.532 the executive director of the North Fork Rancheria Indian 01:22:36.544 --> 01:22:40.870 Housing Authority in Madera County, and he's also a member of 01:22:40.870 --> 01:22:44.917 the North Fork Rancheria tribe. Mr. 01:22:44.929 --> 01:22:48.920 Irwin directs affordable housing community development and 01:22:48.932 --> 01:22:53.188 transportation activities for the North Fork Rancheria of Mono 01:22:53.200 --> 01:22:57.536 Indians. He also serves on numerous committees and Commissions, 01:22:57.548 --> 01:23:01.801 including the CalTrans Native American Advisory Committee, the 01:23:01.813 --> 01:23:06.214 advisory board for the North Fork Rancheria Temporary Assistance 01:23:06.226 --> 01:23:10.214 for Needy Families program, and the Board of Commissioners 01:23:10.226 --> 01:23:14.158 for the North Fork Rancheria Indian Housing Authority. He 01:23:14.170 --> 01:23:18.422 resides in Madera County, and I want to point out that Paul is 01:23:18.434 --> 01:23:22.630 one of these folks who were born and raised in Madera County, 01:23:22.642 --> 01:23:26.832 went off to university, and came back home. I mean, I have to 01:23:26.844 --> 01:23:30.910 admit, I didn't do that, and I am from the north end of the 01:23:30.922 --> 01:23:35.515 San Joaquin Valley. I'm not too far away now, I'm in the Sacramento 01:23:35.527 --> 01:23:39.388 Valley, but anyway, kudos on that. So Mr. Irwin and Miss 01:23:39.400 --> 01:23:43.525 Castellone are highly qualified to serve on the LIOB, and we 01:23:43.537 --> 01:23:47.538 definitely thank them for stepping forward to serve there. 01:23:49.063 --> 01:23:51.769 Alright. And Commissioner Guzman Aceves has remarks. 01:23:51.769 --> 01:23:55.083 And thank you, Mr. 01:23:55.095 --> 01:23:58.354 Irwin, that's a very impressive resume. We look 01:23:58.366 --> 01:24:01.619 forward to working with you and your leadership 01:24:01.631 --> 01:24:04.623 to help us get more investments into tribal 01:24:04.635 --> 01:24:07.885 communities across the state. I wanted to speak 01:24:07.897 --> 01:24:11.158 to item 18, which has to do with the net energy 01:24:11.170 --> 01:24:13.813 metering provisions to enhance consumer 01:24:13.825 --> 01:24:17.297 protections. I think, as you all know, there have 01:24:17.309 --> 01:24:20.625 been, unfortunately, too many cases dealing with 01:24:20.637 --> 01:24:23.965 fraud and folks getting solar on their rooftops. 01:24:23.977 --> 01:24:26.755 In this decision, we provide a couple of 01:24:26.767 --> 01:24:29.897 changes I want to just highlight for you. One 01:24:29.909 --> 01:24:32.752 is that we put in provisions to allow for 01:24:32.764 --> 01:24:36.231 e-signatures. I think you may remember that we had 01:24:36.243 --> 01:24:39.364 originally passed the consumer protections to 01:24:39.376 --> 01:24:42.645 require wet signatures, and we are now allowing 01:24:42.657 --> 01:24:46.176 for e-signatures with certain conditions, including 01:24:46.188 --> 01:24:49.175 more information about who the lenders are, 01:24:49.187 --> 01:24:52.373 and that's really been a big problem and a big 01:24:52.385 --> 01:24:55.650 piece of this PD is that we had no information, 01:24:55.662 --> 01:24:58.640 not us, not the Contractors State Licensing 01:24:58.652 --> 01:25:01.982 Board, not the Department of Business Oversight, 01:25:01.994 --> 01:25:05.047 to know who the lending entity is, and there 01:25:05.059 --> 01:25:08.327 was, previously, in the interconnection portal, 01:25:08.339 --> 01:25:11.520 the requirement to know who the one particular 01:25:11.532 --> 01:25:14.997 type of lending entity, which was a pace provider, 01:25:15.009 --> 01:25:18.059 so we're broadening that category to include 01:25:18.071 --> 01:25:21.134 all lending providers because unfortunately, 01:25:21.146 --> 01:25:24.330 some of the federally regulated loan providers 01:25:24.342 --> 01:25:27.401 are kind of the worst culprits at this time. 01:25:27.413 --> 01:25:30.535 I did want to acknowledge Kern County because 01:25:30.547 --> 01:25:33.476 they actually eliminated the pace offering 01:25:33.501 --> 01:25:36.725 here in the county 01:25:36.737 --> 01:25:39.775 because of all the fraud issues, so wanted to 01:25:39.787 --> 01:25:43.084 thank the Chairwoman and the Board of Supervisors 01:25:43.096 --> 01:25:46.272 for that leadership, and so, and also just want 01:25:46.284 --> 01:25:49.247 to add a couple of other things here. One of 01:25:49.259 --> 01:25:52.299 the other big pieces that I know Commissioner 01:25:52.311 --> 01:25:55.677 Rechtschaffen and Person Randolph have really been 01:25:55.689 --> 01:25:58.802 leading on which is the issue of citations and 01:25:58.814 --> 01:26:01.908 giving us more immediate remedies to stop this 01:26:01.920 --> 01:26:05.290 type of, these types of fraudulent activities, and 01:26:05.302 --> 01:26:08.865 so this PD also directs CPED, our utility enforcement 01:26:08.877 --> 01:26:11.592 branch under them, to develop a citation 01:26:11.604 --> 01:26:14.766 program to make these requirements more quickly 01:26:14.778 --> 01:26:18.019 and readily enforceable. And also, I did want to 01:26:18.031 --> 01:26:21.001 say that, forthcoming, I will be proposing a 01:26:21.013 --> 01:26:24.393 proposal on a restitution fund for those customers 01:26:24.405 --> 01:26:27.560 who are yet to be made whole, and so, I'm still 01:26:27.572 --> 01:26:30.805 thinking through how to propose that, but I just 01:26:30.817 --> 01:26:33.977 want to let you know that that's something else 01:26:33.989 --> 01:26:37.228 I'll be working on. And finally, I want to thank 01:26:37.240 --> 01:26:40.332 all the team who's been working really hard on 01:26:40.344 --> 01:26:43.514 this proposal and really want to thank them for 01:26:43.526 --> 01:26:46.425 their dedication on these customers, making 01:26:46.437 --> 01:26:49.613 these customers whole. And primarily, I want to 01:26:49.625 --> 01:26:52.715 thank Administrative Law Judge Cao who's spent 01:26:52.727 --> 01:26:56.094 tremendous amount of time on this. Energy division 01:26:56.106 --> 01:26:59.136 staff Chris Wessling and Carrie Fleischer. As 01:26:59.148 --> 01:27:02.388 well as Legal, who's really helped us tighten up 01:27:02.400 --> 01:27:05.626 this proposal and deal with some of the barriers 01:27:05.638 --> 01:27:08.743 that we had, and that was Angie Hagler for all 01:27:08.755 --> 01:27:11.788 of her really amazing work. And of course, my 01:27:11.800 --> 01:27:14.977 staff, Sarah Sharp and Maria Sottero. Thank you 01:27:15.003 --> 01:27:16.501 Alright, 01:27:16.500 --> 01:27:20.775 Thank you. Okay, the next 01:27:20.787 --> 01:27:24.990 item on our agenda are items 33 and 33A, and those 01:27:24.990 --> 01:27:27.596 that is my 01:27:27.608 --> 01:27:30.825 proceeding, so I will present that. 33 is 01:27:30.837 --> 01:27:36.535 a proposed decision, and 33A is an alternate proposed decision that relates 01:27:36.547 --> 01:27:41.938 to a decision we originally made in May 2018. That decision addressed a 01:27:41.950 --> 01:27:47.653 natural gas transmission pipeline, line 1600, that serves core and non-core 01:27:47.665 --> 01:27:52.828 customers in San Diego County, owned and operated by San Diego Gas & 01:27:52.840 --> 01:27:58.615 Electric and SoCal Gas. In our May 28 decision, we found that line 1600 is a 01:27:58.627 --> 01:28:04.546 transmission line and the full safety mandate of Public Utilities Code section 01:28:04.558 --> 01:28:10.265 958 must be applied. We ordered the companies to submit to the Commission's 01:28:10.277 --> 01:28:12.809 Safety and Enforcement division, a 01:28:12.821 --> 01:28:16.188 hydrostatic test or replace plan pertaining 01:28:16.200 --> 01:28:21.599 to the existing 49.7 mile corridor. In that decision, we also delegated 01:28:21.611 --> 01:28:27.454 authority to SED to review the company's hydro test and replace plan, related 01:28:27.466 --> 01:28:32.870 to segments of that line. Some segments of the line are located in high 01:28:32.882 --> 01:28:38.872 consequence, or HCA, areas, and the line is known to have hook crack anomalies. 01:28:38.884 --> 01:28:44.436 And those anomalies can accelerate the rate at which the surrounding weld 01:28:44.448 --> 01:28:47.584 metal corrodes which can lead to pipeline 01:28:47.596 --> 01:28:50.444 damage and gas leakage. The utilities 01:28:50.456 --> 01:28:55.864 submitted a proposed plan with four options, and Safety and Enforcement 01:28:55.876 --> 01:29:01.257 Division authorized design Alternative 1, in which the applicants would 01:29:01.269 --> 01:29:06.962 replace fourteen segments of the line located in high consequence areas and 01:29:06.974 --> 01:29:12.511 hydrotest four segments of the line located in non-high consequence areas 01:29:12.523 --> 01:29:17.922 at an estimated cost of $677 million. Several parties from the original 01:29:17.934 --> 01:29:20.540 proceeding protect our communities, 01:29:20.552 --> 01:29:23.768 Southern California Generation Coalition, 01:29:23.780 --> 01:29:29.027 the Sierra Club, and The Utility Reform Network, filed a petition for 01:29:29.039 --> 01:29:32.322 modification in May 2019 expressing concern 01:29:32.334 --> 01:29:35.104 about the high costs of the approved 01:29:35.116 --> 01:29:40.668 design Alternate 1. Both the proposed decision and the alternate proposed 01:29:40.680 --> 01:29:46.588 decision do express concern about the costs of the approved plan and therefore 01:29:46.600 --> 01:29:51.920 both decisions would open a second phase of this proceeding to vet the 01:29:51.932 --> 01:29:57.320 applicants cost forecasts. The difference is the alternate requires the 01:29:57.332 --> 01:29:59.871 applicants to submit detailed cost 01:29:59.883 --> 01:30:03.183 estimates for all segments of the approved 01:30:03.195 --> 01:30:06.475 plan and move forward with the SED-approved 01:30:06.487 --> 01:30:09.031 work scheduled to begin the first 01:30:09.043 --> 01:30:14.591 quarter of this year. The proposed decision would stop the work scheduled 01:30:14.603 --> 01:30:20.069 to begin in the first quarter of 2020, revisit consideration of all four 01:30:20.081 --> 01:30:25.710 plans the applicant submitted to SED, and consider derating line 1600 from 01:30:25.710 --> 01:30:30.398 512 PSIG to 320 PSIG, 01:30:30.410 --> 01:30:35.710 required detailed cost estimates and a full hydrotest 01:30:35.710 --> 01:30:39.449 alternate option for all 01:30:39.461 --> 01:30:43.662 segments of line 1600. So that's the factual background 01:30:43.674 --> 01:30:47.718 of this case. It represents a very difficult decision 01:30:47.730 --> 01:30:51.712 because we need to ensure the safety and reliability 01:30:51.724 --> 01:30:55.466 of natural gas infrastructure in this state as we 01:30:55.478 --> 01:30:59.456 consider a long-term planning strategy to manage the 01:30:59.468 --> 01:31:02.990 state's transition away from natural gas field 01:31:03.002 --> 01:31:07.062 technologies to meet our decarbonisation goals. Those 01:31:07.074 --> 01:31:10.964 complex issues and questions are some of the things 01:31:10.976 --> 01:31:15.028 that I'm hoping that we will address in the new order 01:31:15.040 --> 01:31:18.786 instituting rulemaking to perform a long-term gas 01:31:18.798 --> 01:31:22.556 system planning assessment that we voted out last 01:31:22.568 --> 01:31:26.912 meeting. However, this decision relates to a single piece 01:31:26.924 --> 01:31:30.754 of infrastructure with known underlying anomalies. 01:31:30.766 --> 01:31:34.139 Those anomalies have existed for many years. 01:31:34.151 --> 01:31:38.588 Unfortunately, the company chose to take a bit of a detour 01:31:38.600 --> 01:31:42.635 by proposing a new gas line that would have increased 01:31:42.647 --> 01:31:46.544 capacity in area that, in our decision in May 2018, 01:31:46.556 --> 01:31:50.446 we determined was not necessary given our long-term 01:31:50.458 --> 01:31:54.361 goals. So the company needed to go back and revisit 01:31:54.373 --> 01:31:58.711 the question of how they were gonna handle the underlying 01:31:58.723 --> 01:32:02.398 anomalies in this pipeline and ensure the safety 01:32:02.410 --> 01:32:06.228 and reliability of Line 1600. They did that, under 01:32:06.240 --> 01:32:10.071 our direction, they presented the plan, our Safety 01:32:10.083 --> 01:32:14.344 and Enforcement division reviewed the plan, and approved 01:32:14.356 --> 01:32:18.029 the plan. Under the alternate, all costs related 01:32:18.041 --> 01:32:22.159 to that plan will be subject to reasonableness review, 01:32:22.171 --> 01:32:25.775 and that will provide parties an opportunity to 01:32:25.787 --> 01:32:29.601 litigate the cost forecasts of the SED alternative 01:32:29.613 --> 01:32:33.514 that will result in greater transparency and inform 01:32:33.526 --> 01:32:37.797 us going forward as we seek to ensure that the utilities 01:32:37.809 --> 01:32:41.340 maintain safe and reliable gas systems at just 01:32:41.340 --> 01:32:46.906 and reasonable rates. I want 01:32:46.918 --> 01:32:52.290 to reference an additional important item. This item 01:32:52.290 --> 01:32:57.521 was held from the January Commission meeting 01:32:57.533 --> 01:33:02.552 because SoCal Gas and SDG&E sent a letter to the Commissioners and 01:33:02.564 --> 01:33:07.802 their advisors, regarding the PD and the APD. That letter constituted 01:33:07.814 --> 01:33:13.063 a violation of the Commission's ex parte quiet time rules as codified 01:33:13.075 --> 01:33:18.290 by Public Utilities Code Section 1701.3h6 This is a serious violation 01:33:18.302 --> 01:33:23.081 by a sophisticated party with familiarity with the Commission's 01:33:23.093 --> 01:33:28.464 rules, and I want to note that the Commission will consider appropriate 01:33:28.476 --> 01:33:33.410 enforcement action related to that incident, but I really want to 01:33:33.410 --> 01:33:37.614 emphasize that one of the 01:33:37.626 --> 01:33:41.760 significant differences between the PD and the APD 01:33:41.760 --> 01:33:47.840 is that the PD sets forth 01:33:47.852 --> 01:33:52.989 a phase to consider derating Line 1600 down 01:33:52.989 --> 01:33:57.788 to a lower PSIG. And I really 01:33:57.800 --> 01:34:02.260 gave that some serious thought, in terms of adding 01:34:02.272 --> 01:34:06.815 that to the APD, and I ultimately decided that that 01:34:06.827 --> 01:34:11.206 would not be appropriate, mainly because first of 01:34:11.218 --> 01:34:15.494 all, derating the line is not, doesn't, sort of, 01:34:15.506 --> 01:34:20.145 provide instant, you know, safety assurance. It, you 01:34:20.157 --> 01:34:24.702 know, it helps being at a lower pressure, but it is 01:34:24.714 --> 01:34:29.271 still a gas line that will be operating at pressure 01:34:29.283 --> 01:34:33.383 and the hook crack anomalies could still cause 01:34:33.395 --> 01:34:38.031 leaks, and so, it would not assure the safety of the 01:34:38.043 --> 01:34:42.762 line going forward. Secondly, it would also mean that 01:34:42.774 --> 01:34:47.067 the line would not be usable for the purpose for 01:34:47.079 --> 01:34:51.970 which it was intended. The Commission determined it was 01:34:51.982 --> 01:34:56.447 a gas transmission line, it serves core customers, 01:34:56.459 --> 01:35:00.743 and while some of that demand for core customers 01:35:00.755 --> 01:35:05.051 will be going down, the line still needs to also 01:35:05.063 --> 01:35:09.768 serve non-core customers, and it needs to be operated 01:35:09.780 --> 01:35:13.712 at a pressure that will serve those non-core 01:35:13.724 --> 01:35:18.523 customers as well. So recognizing that there is a need 01:35:18.535 --> 01:35:23.085 for the line, I didn't think that spending a lot of 01:35:23.097 --> 01:35:27.368 time discussing derating a line in a manner that 01:35:27.380 --> 01:35:31.839 would not necessarily assure safety and would mean 01:35:31.851 --> 01:35:36.041 that the line could not be, could not serve the 01:35:36.053 --> 01:35:40.868 customers it needed to serve, led me to decide that we 01:35:40.880 --> 01:35:45.588 need to move forward with the repairs to the line and 01:35:45.600 --> 01:35:49.882 replacement as appropriate and ensure the safety 01:35:49.894 --> 01:35:54.170 and reliability of the line. You know, these are 01:35:54.182 --> 01:35:58.733 going to be challenging issues that we deal with in 01:35:58.745 --> 01:36:03.368 the coming years, but, you know, we can't lose sight 01:36:03.380 --> 01:36:08.016 of the fact that we are talking about a transmission 01:36:08.028 --> 01:36:12.307 line in high consequence areas, and so we really 01:36:12.319 --> 01:36:16.610 need to keep safety at the top of mind. So a few 01:36:16.610 --> 01:36:21.766 thank yous. I would like to thank Administrative Law 01:36:21.778 --> 01:36:26.945 Judge Collette Kirsten for her work on this proceeding. I would like to thank 01:36:26.957 --> 01:36:31.986 Assistant Chief Michelle Cook for her work and guidance on this proceeding. 01:36:31.998 --> 01:36:37.105 I'd also like to thank Matt Epuna from SED, Ed Maldaski from Legal, Kristina 01:36:37.117 --> 01:36:41.944 Abadjian and Jean Spencer from Energy division, my Bagley-Keene partner, 01:36:41.956 --> 01:36:44.463 Commissioner Shiroma, and her advisor, 01:36:44.475 --> 01:36:47.458 Justin Ragnar, and my former chief of staff 01:36:47.470 --> 01:36:52.569 and, now, acting-director of Safety Policy division, Rachel Peterson, and my 01:36:52.581 --> 01:36:57.890 advisor, Ana Durvasula, who is working on this proceeding as well. So thank you 01:36:57.890 --> 01:37:02.517 very much, and I will 01:37:02.529 --> 01:37:07.070 invite comments from my fellow Commissioners. 01:37:07.095 --> 01:37:10.130 The B-K partner gets to go first. 01:37:10.130 --> 01:37:13.477 I'll go next as 01:37:13.489 --> 01:37:17.537 Commissioner Randolph's Bagley-Keene partner. 01:37:17.549 --> 01:37:21.247 So I appreciate the immense amount of work 01:37:21.259 --> 01:37:25.054 that has been done in leading us up to this 01:37:25.066 --> 01:37:28.847 point, and I also appreciate that there are 01:37:28.859 --> 01:37:32.393 many differences of opinion on it, and I 01:37:32.405 --> 01:37:35.501 harken back to reasonable people can 01:37:35.513 --> 01:37:39.571 reasonably disagree, and I think we have that 01:37:39.583 --> 01:37:43.362 situation here, but I do, again, appreciate 01:37:43.374 --> 01:37:47.079 the the sheer volume of work that was done 01:37:47.091 --> 01:37:50.704 by by the Commission staff, by the Judge, 01:37:50.716 --> 01:37:54.341 by Commissioner Randolph's office, by the 01:37:54.353 --> 01:37:58.308 parties, and so forth, to look at what should 01:37:58.320 --> 01:38:02.201 be done for this stretch of pipeline. I will 01:38:02.213 --> 01:38:06.347 be supporting Commissioner Randolph's alternate 01:38:06.359 --> 01:38:09.641 proposed decision for all the reasons 01:38:09.653 --> 01:38:12.828 that she just outlined, and you know, 01:38:12.840 --> 01:38:17.148 furthermore, for me, it's fundamental. This line 01:38:17.160 --> 01:38:20.945 is still very important for the reliability 01:38:20.957 --> 01:38:24.840 of California, for the reliability of energy 01:38:24.852 --> 01:38:28.461 for California. It goes through some high 01:38:28.473 --> 01:38:32.784 consequence areas, and what is a high consequence 01:38:32.796 --> 01:38:39.791 area? There are people who live close to the this pipeline, and there are places 01:38:39.803 --> 01:38:43.756 of worship and what-have-you, movie theaters, 01:38:43.768 --> 01:38:47.474 where people gather. It's also fundamental 01:38:47.486 --> 01:38:51.099 for me that there are, it's a fact, there 01:38:51.111 --> 01:38:54.564 are material flaws that have been found 01:38:54.576 --> 01:38:58.445 in this pipeline, and long ago and far away, 01:38:58.457 --> 01:39:02.253 I got that material science and engineering 01:39:02.265 --> 01:39:06.227 degree, and when there are flaws in materials 01:39:06.239 --> 01:39:09.349 like this, in a pipeline like this, 01:39:09.361 --> 01:39:13.567 it can only get worse. It's something that needs 01:39:13.579 --> 01:39:17.280 to be addressed, and I think it's critical 01:39:17.292 --> 01:39:21.074 that that be addressed as soon as possible. 01:39:21.086 --> 01:39:24.448 I very much appreciate that the Safety 01:39:24.460 --> 01:39:28.239 Enforcement division was delegated the work 01:39:28.251 --> 01:39:31.955 to come up with a viable plan, and I trust 01:39:31.967 --> 01:39:35.924 their work on this. So I think it's important 01:39:35.936 --> 01:39:39.042 for us to move ahead. And also that 01:39:39.054 --> 01:39:42.745 the cost will be litigated because we know 01:39:42.757 --> 01:39:46.546 that it currently has a high price tag, and 01:39:46.558 --> 01:39:50.513 what does, is that a correct estimate of what 01:39:50.525 --> 01:39:54.148 it will take to implement the alternative 01:39:54.160 --> 01:39:57.853 proposed decision plan, and what does that 01:39:57.865 --> 01:40:01.140 mean for the customers within the the 01:40:01.152 --> 01:40:04.765 Southern State area and and of course for 01:40:04.777 --> 01:40:08.575 the low-income customers and I also want to 01:40:08.587 --> 01:40:12.277 reiterate what Commissioner Randolph said. 01:40:12.289 --> 01:40:16.250 Last month, we opened up an order instituting 01:40:16.262 --> 01:40:19.958 a rulemaking to look at gas viability over 01:40:19.970 --> 01:40:23.591 the the next few years and decades. We're 01:40:23.603 --> 01:40:27.382 heading towards a 2045 Greenhouse Gas Goal. 01:40:27.394 --> 01:40:30.754 What does that mean for our very, very 01:40:30.766 --> 01:40:34.897 extensive gas infrastructure, our gas reliance, 01:40:34.909 --> 01:40:38.102 and then also, what does it mean for 01:40:38.114 --> 01:40:41.633 providing for alternative fuels, whether 01:40:41.645 --> 01:40:45.521 that's hydrogen, dairy digester gas, and I'm 01:40:45.533 --> 01:40:49.317 just gonna report a little later on that we 01:40:49.329 --> 01:40:52.952 visited an amazing dairy digester system, 01:40:52.964 --> 01:40:56.314 yesterday. And so we will have a lot of 01:40:56.326 --> 01:41:00.377 efforts moving along, and I think that really 01:41:00.389 --> 01:41:04.435 provides for good policy while we also address 01:41:04.447 --> 01:41:07.900 some immediate issues that are going on 01:41:07.900 --> 01:41:10.008 right now. Thank you. 01:41:10.033 --> 01:41:13.244 Thank you. Well, 01:41:13.256 --> 01:41:16.000 I certainly agree on many fronts, and I 01:41:16.000 --> 01:41:22.365 think the biggest one is that no action is not an 01:41:22.377 --> 01:41:25.394 option here. In that, we know that the 01:41:25.406 --> 01:41:28.913 pipeline has some material flaws that need 01:41:28.925 --> 01:41:31.461 to be addressed, and I think the 01:41:31.473 --> 01:41:34.976 unfortunate thing for me is that what this 01:41:34.988 --> 01:41:38.646 application by SoCal Gas has really presented 01:41:38.658 --> 01:41:41.849 is that we do not have a lot of options 01:41:41.861 --> 01:41:45.591 before us and and the need for more innovation 01:41:45.603 --> 01:41:48.707 in both technology and ensuring safety 01:41:48.719 --> 01:41:55.019 is a vacuum, and something that, in the other reliability OIR, is pointed out. 01:41:55.031 --> 01:41:58.525 I did want to see, my preference was to see 01:41:58.537 --> 01:42:02.123 greater analysis on what these alternatives, 01:42:02.135 --> 01:42:05.476 and particularly alternative of derating, 01:42:05.488 --> 01:42:08.042 as President Randolph mentioned 01:42:08.054 --> 01:42:11.697 earlier, and how we could potentially operate 01:42:11.709 --> 01:42:14.649 this older flawed pipeline in a safe 01:42:14.661 --> 01:42:20.870 way, and unfortunately, we don't have that information, and it, obviously, is 01:42:20.882 --> 01:42:24.449 safer to replace it but much more expensive. 01:42:24.461 --> 01:42:27.483 And certainly, as we talked and heard 01:42:27.495 --> 01:42:30.431 a lot from the public this morning on 01:42:30.443 --> 01:42:34.028 options, on affordable options, this nearly 01:42:34.040 --> 01:42:40.479 potential billion-dollar investment may not be the most affordable option in the 01:42:40.491 --> 01:42:43.824 future, and we are, as President Randolph 01:42:43.836 --> 01:42:46.942 mentioned, at this turning point where 01:42:46.954 --> 01:42:49.886 these investments need to be made and 01:42:49.898 --> 01:42:53.478 making these investments could last another 01:42:53.490 --> 01:42:59.469 half a century. So as I said that is my preference, but also agree that we 01:42:59.469 --> 01:43:02.276 have to take some action today. 01:43:02.301 --> 01:43:06.580 I just want to notice how easily Commissioner 01:43:06.580 --> 01:43:09.565 Guzman Aceves 01:43:09.577 --> 01:43:12.097 is now calling Commissioner Randolph 01:43:12.109 --> 01:43:17.297 President Randolph, and I also want to point out that, next week, all three 01:43:17.309 --> 01:43:19.615 Commissioners will be at the NERUC 01:43:19.627 --> 01:43:22.763 conference, and President Batjer's out, so I 01:43:22.775 --> 01:43:28.106 would like to assume the position of President next week, and its so moved. I 01:43:28.118 --> 01:43:30.968 actually agree with everything just about 01:43:30.980 --> 01:43:33.774 everything that my colleagues have said, 01:43:33.786 --> 01:43:36.711 which is hard because they're not, they're 01:43:36.723 --> 01:43:39.182 in different positions, but this is 01:43:39.194 --> 01:43:42.116 indeed one of the very difficult decisions 01:43:42.128 --> 01:43:44.515 we will face as we transition away 01:43:44.527 --> 01:43:50.134 from our reliance on natural gas, and as Commissioner Guzman Aceves just said, we 01:43:50.146 --> 01:43:55.596 heard today many of the issues that will be challenging: affordability, choice, 01:43:55.608 --> 01:43:58.123 the pace at which that change occurs. 01:43:58.135 --> 01:44:01.071 This line is a line with safety problems, 01:44:01.083 --> 01:44:04.140 and safety must remain our priority, without 01:44:04.152 --> 01:44:06.744 question, but addressing these safety 01:44:06.756 --> 01:44:09.615 problems in the manner proposed, it costs 01:44:09.627 --> 01:44:12.019 a lot of money, over $600 million. 01:44:12.031 --> 01:44:17.416 That's a very high investment, and we're contemplating that, at the same time, 01:44:17.428 --> 01:44:20.354 we know that gas demand is set to steadily 01:44:20.366 --> 01:44:22.689 decline until the point that this 01:44:22.701 --> 01:44:25.214 line, and the other major line in San 01:44:25.226 --> 01:44:28.160 Diego Gas and Electric territory, will be 01:44:28.172 --> 01:44:33.575 used significantly less than today. The decision point for me or the operating 01:44:33.587 --> 01:44:36.570 principle for me is as we are transitioning 01:44:36.582 --> 01:44:38.964 away from natural gas reliance, we 01:44:38.976 --> 01:44:44.365 need to take extra steps, be especially cautious that as we're doing that, and 01:44:44.377 --> 01:44:49.487 as we're facing the increasing pressure on ratepayers, we do everything to 01:44:49.499 --> 01:44:52.423 explore all other less costly alternatives 01:44:52.435 --> 01:44:54.962 to full investment. And I agree with 01:44:54.974 --> 01:45:00.422 Commissioner Guzman Aceves. I would have been interested in studying the option 01:45:00.434 --> 01:45:05.963 of derating the line's capacity, which I think we're gonna clearly going to need 01:45:05.975 --> 01:45:11.292 to study that eventually, right now, and that would have allowed us to pursue 01:45:11.304 --> 01:45:14.162 the hydrotest option only at roughly half 01:45:14.174 --> 01:45:16.702 the cost of the full replacement and 01:45:16.714 --> 01:45:19.290 hydrotest plan. I would have also been 01:45:19.302 --> 01:45:22.229 interested in compromises that the Public 01:45:22.241 --> 01:45:25.164 Advocates office floated about, right now, 01:45:25.176 --> 01:45:27.769 starting no regrets work, replacement 01:45:27.781 --> 01:45:33.233 work, on some of the lines, that's, that we're ready to go while we examine the 01:45:33.245 --> 01:45:38.505 alternatives. So for those reasons I prefer the proposed decision as opposed 01:45:38.517 --> 01:45:41.434 to the alternative decision. Commissioner, 01:45:41.446 --> 01:45:43.830 President Randolph thanked all the 01:45:43.842 --> 01:45:49.099 people who were involved, and I want to echo my thanks because they worked a 01:45:49.111 --> 01:45:51.691 great deal with my office as I thought 01:45:51.703 --> 01:45:54.635 through this decision. And I want to also 01:45:54.647 --> 01:45:59.910 thank Commissioner Randolph for her very hard work as well as Judge Kirsten. 01:45:59.969 --> 01:46:02.603 Okay, you guys need to stop 01:46:02.615 --> 01:46:05.460 calling me President Randolph. So we're gonna do this and 01:46:05.460 --> 01:46:08.048 we're gonna start with the item 33, the 01:46:08.060 --> 01:46:10.860 proposed decision. Will you call the roll 01:46:10.860 --> 01:46:14.857 on item 33 please. 01:46:14.882 --> 01:46:19.308 For Item 33, Commissioner Shiroma? No 01:46:19.333 --> 01:46:20.689 Commissioner Guzman Aceves? 01:46:20.701 --> 01:46:21.784 Aye 01:46:21.809 --> 01:46:23.168 Commissioner Rechtschaffen 01:46:23.180 --> 01:46:24.288 Yes 01:46:24.313 --> 01:46:25.633 Commissioner Randolph 01:46:25.645 --> 01:46:26.849 No. Okay 01:46:26.849 --> 01:46:32.763 item 33 fails. Can you call the roll on item 33A, please. 01:46:32.788 --> 01:46:34.367 For item 33A, Commissioner 01:46:34.379 --> 01:46:36.082 Shiroma? Aye. 01:46:36.107 --> 01:46:38.590 Commissioner Guzman Aceves? Aye 01:46:38.615 --> 01:46:41.201 Commissioner Rechtschaffen? Aye. 01:46:41.226 --> 01:46:44.999 Commissioner Randolph? Aye. Okay moving on to 01:46:44.999 --> 01:46:53.239 item 34. This is also my proceeding. This is a 01:46:53.239 --> 01:46:57.179 proposed decision in the Pacific 01:46:57.191 --> 01:47:01.279 Corp general rate case and order instituting investigation. 01:47:01.291 --> 01:47:05.237 Pacific Corp is a large multi-jurisdictional utility that 01:47:05.249 --> 01:47:09.207 serves approximately 40,000 customers in the northernmost 01:47:09.219 --> 01:47:13.299 part of California, including the counties of Siskiyou, Del 01:47:13.311 --> 01:47:17.471 Norte, Modoc, and Shasta. This was Pacific Corp's first rate 01:47:17.483 --> 01:47:21.841 case since 2011, and in considering Pacific Corp's application, 01:47:21.853 --> 01:47:25.473 two of the big themes that emerged in the proceeding 01:47:25.485 --> 01:47:29.826 were how to bring a multi-jurisdictional utility into alignment 01:47:29.838 --> 01:47:33.580 with California's climate goals and how to protect the 01:47:33.592 --> 01:47:37.871 interests of Pacific Corp's California rate payers. Given that 01:47:37.883 --> 01:47:41.903 so much of their assets and operations are located outside 01:47:41.915 --> 01:47:45.783 of California, we had to ensure that the small number of 01:47:45.795 --> 01:47:49.811 ratepayers within California were protected. In this case, 01:47:49.823 --> 01:47:53.697 Pacific Corp requested accelerated depreciation of their 01:47:53.709 --> 01:47:57.867 coal units, all of which are located outside of the state of 01:47:57.892 --> 01:48:01.829 California and serve all of 01:48:01.841 --> 01:48:05.641 Pacific Corp's customers, including the California 01:48:05.653 --> 01:48:09.521 customers. Under Pacific Corp's request, California 01:48:09.533 --> 01:48:14.085 ratepayers would pay off those coal assets faster than their 01:48:14.097 --> 01:48:18.037 useful lives. And this benefit from ratepayers might 01:48:18.049 --> 01:48:22.075 have been appropriate if Pacific Corp, in turn, fully 01:48:22.087 --> 01:48:26.407 committed to retiring those facilities. However, although 01:48:26.419 --> 01:48:30.153 the company has informally stated in other venues 01:48:30.165 --> 01:48:34.317 that it does intend to retire those facilities, it made 01:48:34.329 --> 01:48:38.419 no commitment to do so in this proceeding. And without 01:48:38.431 --> 01:48:42.069 a retirement date commitment, it's possible that 01:48:42.081 --> 01:48:46.400 California ratepayers could pay more money over a shorter 01:48:46.412 --> 01:48:50.642 period of time and still be served by coal. Accordingly, 01:48:50.654 --> 01:48:54.673 this PD denies Pacific Corp's request for accelerated 01:48:54.685 --> 01:48:58.474 depreciation. This denial is a significant part of 01:48:58.486 --> 01:49:02.064 why the revenue requirement authorized today at 01:49:02.089 --> 01:49:06.112 $71,951,494 is over six million 01:49:06.124 --> 01:49:09.875 dollars less than what Pacific Corp requested in its 01:49:09.887 --> 01:49:13.846 original application. Holding firm on actual retirement 01:49:13.858 --> 01:49:18.040 commitments for any accelerated depreciation request is an 01:49:18.052 --> 01:49:22.149 important key in holding the company accountable. There's 01:49:22.161 --> 01:49:26.200 more work ahead for this Commission in reviewing Pacific 01:49:26.212 --> 01:49:30.173 Corp's portfolio that serves California customers. This 01:49:30.185 --> 01:49:34.583 decision orders Pacific Corp to present to the Commission its 01:49:34.595 --> 01:49:38.894 plan for coal requirement retirements and is ordered to file 01:49:38.906 --> 01:49:42.863 its next general rate case for Test Year 2022 with that 01:49:42.875 --> 01:49:46.826 plan, so that we do not go so long between general rate 01:49:46.838 --> 01:49:50.801 cases, as we did in this instance. If the company wants 01:49:50.813 --> 01:49:54.832 to move even more quickly with its coal retirement plan, 01:49:54.844 --> 01:49:58.591 which we would encourage, they may submit a separate 01:49:58.603 --> 01:50:03.053 application before the next GRC with that plan and may include 01:50:03.065 --> 01:50:06.889 any associated requests for accelerated depreciation. 01:50:06.914 --> 01:50:11.141 Turning to the order instituting 01:50:11.153 --> 01:50:15.100 investigation part of this case, this proceeding also 01:50:15.112 --> 01:50:18.979 reviewed how Pacific Corp complies with California's 01:50:18.991 --> 01:50:23.017 greenhouse gas emissions performance standard, or EPS. 01:50:23.029 --> 01:50:26.747 California's EPS prohibits electrical corporations 01:50:26.759 --> 01:50:31.001 long-term financial commitments to the dirtiest resources 01:50:31.013 --> 01:50:35.250 that have emissions rate exceeding a specified threshold, 01:50:35.262 --> 01:50:38.925 Under this EPS, this Commission has discretion on 01:50:38.937 --> 01:50:43.010 whether to accept actual or alternative compliance from 01:50:43.022 --> 01:50:46.888 multi-jurisdictional utilities like Pacific Corp. In 01:50:46.900 --> 01:50:50.760 this application, the company requested authority to 01:50:50.772 --> 01:50:55.009 continue to file in the alternative form under the theory 01:50:55.021 --> 01:50:58.878 that those investments are already reviewed in other 01:50:58.890 --> 01:51:03.125 states with EPS laws like Washington and Oregon. However, 01:51:03.137 --> 01:51:07.073 since authorizing alternative compliance with EPS for 01:51:07.085 --> 01:51:11.179 the company in 2007, California has made the commitment 01:51:11.179 --> 01:51:15.120 to achieve 100% carbon 01:51:15.132 --> 01:51:19.250 free electricity for retail sales by 2045. So this 01:51:19.250 --> 01:51:23.951 decision holds that Pacific Corp may no 01:51:23.963 --> 01:51:29.039 longer use alternative compliance and orders more robust showings and 01:51:29.051 --> 01:51:34.120 review of the company's financial commitments and CO2 emissions going 01:51:34.132 --> 01:51:38.924 forward. Beginning in 2020, Pacific Corp will file its actual EPS 01:51:38.936 --> 01:51:43.930 compliance as a Tier 2 advice letter, which includes the opportunity 01:51:43.942 --> 01:51:48.585 for party protest and allows for more robust litigation of that 01:51:48.597 --> 01:51:53.525 compliance filing. This PD also requires the company to include its 01:51:53.537 --> 01:51:58.840 unit-by-unit lease cost planning analysis in its next IRP filing to show 01:51:58.852 --> 01:52:03.907 the rationale for continued operation of each unit serving California 01:52:03.919 --> 01:52:08.480 customers. As a result, this PD will take significant steps to 01:52:08.492 --> 01:52:13.337 increase our visibility into the company's portfolio. I would like 01:52:13.349 --> 01:52:18.350 to extend my thanks for the people who worked on this case. ALJ Eric 01:52:18.362 --> 01:52:23.276 Willgrube worked very hard and closely with our office, and we very 01:52:23.288 --> 01:52:28.214 much enjoyed working with him. David Sizemore from Energy Division. 01:52:28.226 --> 01:52:33.219 My advisor, Suzanne Cassaza, and former advisors Johanna Guttman and 01:52:33.231 --> 01:52:38.090 Jason Hawk, and my BK partner, Commissioner Guzman Aceves, and her 01:52:38.090 --> 01:52:45.099 adviser, Jonathan. Completely 01:52:45.111 --> 01:52:51.110 blanking. I'm sorry. So Jonathan Colt. And with 01:52:51.110 --> 01:52:53.029 that, I ask for 01:52:53.041 --> 01:52:55.160 your support on this agenda item. Thank you. 01:52:55.185 --> 01:52:56.510 Thank you. 01:52:56.510 --> 01:53:00.793 Thank You Commissioner Randolph 01:53:00.805 --> 01:53:04.823 and all of the staff that you did mention it really was a 01:53:04.835 --> 01:53:09.055 very collaborative effort, and I just appreciate calling out 01:53:09.067 --> 01:53:13.229 all the things that you just said about Pacific Corp having 01:53:13.241 --> 01:53:17.458 the audacity to seek such great benefit while not committing 01:53:17.470 --> 01:53:21.769 to the retirement of coal, and just to stress that, although, 01:53:21.781 --> 01:53:26.073 obviously, we have huge climate goals to drive our dependency 01:53:26.085 --> 01:53:30.042 of coal away, that really is not even necessary here, is 01:53:30.054 --> 01:53:34.469 really that this resource is no longer cost-effective, and your 01:53:34.481 --> 01:53:38.561 additional requirement to include that they have the least 01:53:38.573 --> 01:53:42.994 cost planning included in their IRP to prove that this resource 01:53:43.006 --> 01:53:47.231 is even needed for economic reasons. So I greatly appreciate 01:53:47.243 --> 01:53:51.660 your direction to the utility to make their case and to finally 01:53:51.672 --> 01:53:55.686 rid themselves of these resources that are not beneficial 01:53:55.698 --> 01:53:59.498 in any way to their customers, both environmentally or 01:53:59.510 --> 01:54:03.877 economically. Obviously, I'll be supporting the PD. Thank you. 01:54:03.902 --> 01:54:08.390 Any other comments? Okay. Are we ready to 01:54:08.390 --> 01:54:10.601 call item 34? 01:54:10.626 --> 01:54:13.673 For Item 34, Commissioner Shiroma? Aye. 01:54:13.685 --> 01:54:17.235 Commisioner Guzman Aceves? Aye. Commissioner Rechtschaffen? Aye. 01:54:17.260 --> 01:54:20.139 Commissioner Randolph? Aye. 01:54:20.164 --> 01:54:24.581 Okay. The next item mine as 01:54:24.593 --> 01:54:29.189 well. Item 35. So this is a proposed resolution and an 01:54:29.201 --> 01:54:33.959 alternate. And the reality is the difference between the 01:54:33.971 --> 01:54:38.825 two documents is relatively minor, but I thought was very 01:54:38.837 --> 01:54:43.926 important to state. The original resolution found that Go-Go 01:54:43.938 --> 01:54:48.538 Technologies is not a regulated entity, and therefore, 01:54:48.550 --> 01:54:53.059 dismisses the citation. My alternate came to the same 01:54:53.071 --> 01:54:57.593 conclusion, that it is not a regulated entity for the 01:54:57.605 --> 01:55:02.525 purposes of this proceeding, a citation appeal. My concern 01:55:02.537 --> 01:55:06.968 was this entity which essentially links up customers 01:55:06.980 --> 01:55:11.655 to other TNCs, there were, you know, it was a very kind 01:55:11.667 --> 01:55:16.020 of detailed, factual determination as to whether or 01:55:16.032 --> 01:55:20.788 not this company would be a TNC itself or whether it was 01:55:20.800 --> 01:55:25.234 merely just sort of linking up customers to the TNC. 01:55:25.246 --> 01:55:30.092 And I thought the facts were close enough that the appeal 01:55:30.104 --> 01:55:34.627 of a citation wouldn't, is not really the appropriate 01:55:34.639 --> 01:55:39.303 vehicle to set policy, and that we should take a closer 01:55:39.315 --> 01:55:44.157 look at it in either another proceeding or within the TNC 01:55:44.169 --> 01:55:48.839 proceeding, but I felt that the original resolution was 01:55:48.851 --> 01:55:53.281 not supportive enough of CPED's reasoning, and I can 01:55:53.293 --> 01:55:58.043 understand why they ended up reaching that conclusion. I 01:55:58.055 --> 01:56:02.650 just didn't feel that that was the appropriate kind of 01:56:02.662 --> 01:56:07.502 procedural place to make that conclusion. So as a result, 01:56:07.514 --> 01:56:11.948 I prepared the alternate to the original resolution. 01:56:11.960 --> 01:56:16.458 And I do want to commend CPED for being proactive and 01:56:16.470 --> 01:56:21.565 diligent and putting in a lot of hard work on this citation. 01:56:21.577 --> 01:56:25.662 As Commissioner Guzman Aceves mentioned earlier, 01:56:25.674 --> 01:56:30.441 Commissioner Rechtschaffen has been a leader on ensuring 01:56:30.453 --> 01:56:34.953 that we have a robust citation process, and so I want 01:56:34.965 --> 01:56:39.227 to encourage those citations to come, even if they 01:56:39.239 --> 01:56:43.662 sometimes may be overturned on appeal. So I ask your 01:56:43.674 --> 01:56:48.360 support for alternate, the alternate resolution in 35A. 01:56:49.615 --> 01:56:52.836 I'll be supporting the 01:56:52.848 --> 01:56:55.775 alternate for the reasons Commissioner Randolph 01:56:55.787 --> 01:56:58.831 articulated. Regardless of the resolution of this 01:56:58.843 --> 01:57:02.021 particular citation, it's important that we grapple 01:57:02.033 --> 01:57:05.058 with the larger issues more thoughtfully and in a 01:57:05.070 --> 01:57:08.107 more detailed way, not in this appeal a citation, 01:57:08.119 --> 01:57:11.089 and I think the alternate provides the reasoning 01:57:11.101 --> 01:57:13.961 for that, so I'll be supporting the alternate. 01:57:13.986 --> 01:57:17.014 I actually wasn't 01:57:17.026 --> 01:57:20.067 sure about supporting the PD, but the alternate 01:57:20.079 --> 01:57:22.669 allowed me to have some you know way out 01:57:22.681 --> 01:57:25.473 there because I think we're in a place now, 01:57:25.485 --> 01:57:28.644 particularly with this sector, where the upstream 01:57:28.656 --> 01:57:31.953 liability is eroding and there's the subcontracting 01:57:31.965 --> 01:57:35.066 of this piece and that piece, and we don't have, 01:57:35.078 --> 01:57:37.747 we're not gonna have these clear lines in 01:57:37.759 --> 01:57:40.978 the future, so I really do appreciate the addition 01:57:40.990 --> 01:57:43.715 of the alternate to make it clear that, in 01:57:43.727 --> 01:57:46.954 some cases, there will be greater responsibilities 01:57:46.966 --> 01:57:49.760 to the folks participating in this service. 01:57:49.772 --> 01:57:52.868 And I really appreciate the role that CPD played 01:57:52.880 --> 01:57:55.735 here and probably would have supported their 01:57:55.747 --> 01:57:58.595 upholding of their enforcement action. But I 01:57:58.607 --> 01:58:01.468 will be supporting the alternate. Thank you. 01:58:01.493 --> 01:58:04.633 And I'll also be 01:58:04.645 --> 01:58:08.104 supporting the alternate for all the reasons 01:58:08.116 --> 01:58:11.569 expressed. And I like citations, so any path 01:58:11.581 --> 01:58:14.970 to a citation, I think, it's well worth it. 01:58:14.995 --> 01:58:18.939 Yeah, I really do not want to 01:58:18.951 --> 01:58:23.410 discourage CPED from bringing these citations forward because 01:58:23.422 --> 01:58:27.516 I think it's very, it's a really important tool, and it, 01:58:27.528 --> 01:58:31.777 you know, in some instances, it will be very clear, and if 01:58:31.789 --> 01:58:35.880 the respondent appeals it, we will, you know, uphold the 01:58:35.892 --> 01:58:40.066 citation. Sometimes, it'll be a closer call, but I really 01:58:40.078 --> 01:58:44.319 think it's an important tool that I appreciate them taking 01:58:44.331 --> 01:58:48.439 the advantage of using. So can we call item 35A, please? 01:58:48.464 --> 01:58:51.380 For Item 35a, Commissioner Shiroma? 01:58:51.380 --> 01:58:52.715 Aye. 01:58:53.917 Clerk>Commissioner Guzman Aceves? 01:58:53.942 --> 01:58:55.142 Aye 01:58:56.484 Agenda Clerk>Commissioner Rechtschaffen? 01:58:56.509 --> 01:58:57.960 yes Commissioner Randolph 01:58:57.960 --> 01:59:04.268 Yes. Okay. Item 36 is Commissioner Rechtschaffen. 01:59:04.293 --> 01:59:08.855 Thank you. This is an order extending 01:59:08.867 --> 01:59:13.374 time this proceeding is about our ongoing implementation of PURPA, 01:59:13.386 --> 01:59:17.685 the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. In this proceeding, 01:59:17.697 --> 01:59:22.075 we held workshops. The scoping memo was issued in late 2018, but 01:59:22.087 --> 01:59:26.383 there have been a number of developments in the courts and with 01:59:26.395 --> 01:59:30.838 FERC that have impacted our resolution of this. The Ninth Circuit 01:59:30.850 --> 01:59:35.421 issued two relevant decisions last spring and summer. In September, 01:59:35.433 --> 01:59:39.949 FERC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking, proposing significant 01:59:39.961 --> 01:59:44.248 changes to PURPA regulations. In addition, in the fall, the ALJ 01:59:44.260 --> 01:59:48.961 issued a ruling that provided information compiled by staff regarding 01:59:48.973 --> 01:59:53.130 the length of contracts for electric generation projects that 01:59:53.142 --> 01:59:57.514 have been signed and allowing the parties to comment on that and 01:59:57.526 --> 02:00:01.882 what the appropriate length should be.So given this changing and 02:00:01.894 --> 02:00:06.464 very complex PURPA implementation landscape, there hasn't been time 02:00:06.476 --> 02:00:10.906 to finish this decision. There's good cause, I believe ,to extend 02:00:10.918 --> 02:00:15.090 the deadline to July 20th to allow for additional discussion. 02:00:15.090 --> 02:00:19.658 and I ask for your support extending the statutory deadline. 02:00:19.683 --> 02:00:21.181 Okay, if there are no 02:00:21.180 --> 02:00:23.850 questions on that. All in favor please say aye. 02:00:23.850 --> 02:00:26.190 aye 02:00:26.215 --> 02:00:31.134 Okay. Item 37 is mine. I'm presenting 02:00:31.146 --> 02:00:35.294 this item for President Batjer. This order extending 02:00:35.306 --> 02:00:39.918 statutory deadline is for PG&E's 2017 General Rate Case on 02:00:39.930 --> 02:00:44.632 May 11, 2017. The Commission adopted Decision 1705013 which 02:00:44.644 --> 02:00:49.175 approved PG&E's 2017 GRC. This proceeding remains open to 02:00:49.187 --> 02:00:53.808 address a pending application for rehearing. Therefore, an 02:00:53.820 --> 02:00:58.670 extension of the statutory deadline is necessary. The current 02:00:58.682 --> 02:01:03.388 deadline for the proceeding is February 9, 2020. This order 02:01:03.413 --> 02:01:08.092 extends the proceeding to June 20, 2020. If there are 02:01:08.104 --> 02:01:12.361 no questions, all those in favor please say aye. 02:01:12.386 --> 02:01:13.922 Aye. 02:01:13.948 --> 02:01:19.007 Excuse me, Commissioner. Item 36, I believe 02:01:19.019 --> 02:01:23.997 that (inaudible) extends July 25th and not July 28th. 02:01:24.022 --> 02:01:28.540 Okay, I'm gonna repeat 02:01:28.552 --> 02:01:32.798 that so that folks can hear. On item 36, the 02:01:32.810 --> 02:01:37.428 extension is to July 25th. Okay to be clarified. 02:01:37.440 --> 02:01:42.259 Okay, item 38, please, Commissioner Rechtschaffen. 02:01:40.383 --> 02:01:42.570 The 02:01:42.582 --> 02:01:45.648 Commissioner opened this order investigation 02:01:45.660 --> 02:01:50.403 into the coalition's misuse of the California Band Services Fund Grant 02:01:50.415 --> 02:01:55.553 funds in 2018. The parties have been in settlement of settlement discussions 02:01:55.565 --> 02:02:00.648 and are very close down to submitting a comprehensive settlement agreement. 02:02:00.660 --> 02:02:05.311 This current statutory deadline is February 12th, but in light of the 02:02:05.323 --> 02:02:07.376 progress made on the settlement 02:02:07.388 --> 02:02:10.386 discussions, an extension to August 2020 is 02:02:10.398 --> 02:02:15.588 necessary to review the settlement when it's filed, issue a proposed decision 02:02:15.600 --> 02:02:20.669 for review, and allow us to issue a final decision. I ask for your support. 02:02:20.694 --> 02:02:23.369 All right. If there are 02:02:23.381 --> 02:02:25.794 no questions, all in favor, please say aye. 02:02:26.070 --> 02:02:31.019 Okay. That is it for the agenda 02:02:31.031 --> 02:02:35.469 items. Now, we have Commissioner Reports. Who would 02:02:35.469 --> 02:02:37.292 like to go first? 02:02:38.417 --> 02:02:44.748 All right thank you. I wanted to report on two items. 02:02:44.760 --> 02:02:48.245 First on January 31st, I was, I and others 02:02:48.257 --> 02:02:51.185 were invited to tour the Stone Edge 02:02:51.197 --> 02:02:57.779 Micro Grid in Sonoma, and the owner, Mac Maquon, established a micro grid on his 02:02:57.791 --> 02:03:01.360 working 16 acre farm that has a combination 02:03:01.372 --> 02:03:03.977 of homes, offices, gardens, and 02:03:03.989 --> 02:03:07.550 working vineyards. Cabernet. This microgrid 02:03:07.562 --> 02:03:10.486 has been islanded from the electric 02:03:10.498 --> 02:03:16.600 grid for about 45 days. He was spurred to do that from the experience from 02:03:16.612 --> 02:03:22.952 the PSPS. He uses very sophisticated inverter controls to provide electricity 02:03:22.964 --> 02:03:26.373 from solar generation during the day, and 02:03:26.385 --> 02:03:29.398 batteries, fuel cell, and fuel cells 02:03:29.410 --> 02:03:32.484 at night. They are interested in going 02:03:32.496 --> 02:03:36.068 beyond the standalone operation to provide 02:03:36.080 --> 02:03:42.263 benefits outside the facility, and they, in fact, have an electrolyzer from 02:03:42.275 --> 02:03:48.695 a former nuclear sub, is what I recall, to generate hydrogen and that provides 02:03:48.707 --> 02:03:54.895 the fueling infrastructure for the electric and hydrogen vehicles and their 02:03:54.907 --> 02:03:58.388 fuel cell. They are an open source effort, 02:03:58.400 --> 02:04:01.324 so he has said anything that he has 02:04:01.336 --> 02:04:04.173 learned from his investments in his 02:04:04.185 --> 02:04:07.847 microgrid are available for others to learn 02:04:07.859 --> 02:04:11.343 from and to use. So I do want to thank Mac 02:04:11.355 --> 02:04:14.445 Maquon and his team for demonstrating 02:04:14.457 --> 02:04:20.566 all the features of his facility and the microgrid store, microgrids team, 02:04:20.578 --> 02:04:27.068 headed up by Forrest, for setting up the tour. It was excellent. Thank you. Oh, 02:04:27.080 --> 02:04:30.481 then I also have a report that yesterday, 02:04:30.493 --> 02:04:33.582 Commissioner Randolph and I and other 02:04:33.594 --> 02:04:39.845 folks from the Energy Division Staff toured the Calgreen Biogas facility and 02:04:39.857 --> 02:04:43.262 the Arosa Dairy Digester. Both in Pixley, 02:04:43.274 --> 02:04:46.202 California. The Calgreen facilitie, 02:04:46.214 --> 02:04:49.205 which you can see from Highway 99, we 02:04:49.217 --> 02:04:53.032 received an overview of the plant operations, 02:04:53.044 --> 02:04:58.898 took a look at the point of receipt, and interconnection with the SoCal 02:04:58.910 --> 02:05:05.409 Gas system at the Arosa Dairy which is, I think, more than a mile away from the 02:05:05.421 --> 02:05:11.525 Calgreen, maybe about a mile away from the Calgreen facility. We were able 02:05:11.537 --> 02:05:15.013 to get an overview of the dairy operations 02:05:15.025 --> 02:05:17.784 including the milking operations, 02:05:17.796 --> 02:05:23.892 and it's four generations, starting with Joe Irossa as a great-grandfather 02:05:23.904 --> 02:05:27.304 starting the dairy operations, but we saw 02:05:27.316 --> 02:05:30.646 the dairy that the waste digester, which 02:05:30.658 --> 02:05:36.841 is huge, and all of the features to look at wasting nothing. The water, the 02:05:36.853 --> 02:05:40.251 manure, and so forth, and then, where the 02:05:40.263 --> 02:05:43.510 pipeline infrastructure starts from the 02:05:43.522 --> 02:05:49.784 digester and then goes to the CalGreen facility. So both the tours were very 02:05:49.796 --> 02:05:56.215 eye-opening and was really welcoming for our Central Valley meeting today, and 02:05:56.227 --> 02:06:02.577 I do think the hosts for very positive and informative experience. Thank you. 02:06:02.602 --> 02:06:06.957 I also did a tour yesterday, and I 02:06:06.969 --> 02:06:11.202 wanted to thank the city of Bakersfield, I don't think they're 02:06:11.214 --> 02:06:15.172 still here, and Supervisor Chairwoman Perez, who were very 02:06:15.184 --> 02:06:19.355 welcoming in giving us a tour of the downtown and some of the 02:06:19.367 --> 02:06:23.658 redevelopment projects. Particularly, the Padre Hotel which our 02:06:23.670 --> 02:06:27.772 former lifetime employee Ken Coss had actually introduced me 02:06:27.784 --> 02:06:32.148 to, and I want to welcome him back to this, being with us today. 02:06:32.160 --> 02:06:36.133 They also took us right across the street which was really 02:06:36.145 --> 02:06:40.434 good to see a future project by a company called Bitwise, which 02:06:40.446 --> 02:06:44.614 is also located in Fresno, and the amazing a vision that they 02:06:44.626 --> 02:06:48.921 have for both Bakersfield as well as Merced, and the vision and 02:06:48.933 --> 02:06:53.174 goals that they have for the state and the west coast, really, 02:06:53.186 --> 02:06:57.546 and they are a venture based group that receives funding largely 02:06:57.558 --> 02:07:01.660 from Silicon Valley, but they're focused on really investing 02:07:01.672 --> 02:07:05.971 in the types of communities like Downtown Bakersfield, Downtown 02:07:05.983 --> 02:07:09.890 Fresno and Merced, and they have three elements. One is a 02:07:09.902 --> 02:07:14.388 what they call a Geek Wise Academy which is an educationally-based 02:07:14.400 --> 02:07:18.428 effort to get folks in the community more skills within the 02:07:18.440 --> 02:07:22.596 whole, you know, technology revolution. And then, they have a 02:07:22.608 --> 02:07:26.709 couple of others. One is the hashtag coworkspace, where they 02:07:26.721 --> 02:07:30.941 want to provide literal space for entrepreneurs. And then they 02:07:30.953 --> 02:07:35.118 call it, have another one called the Shift 3 technology which 02:07:35.130 --> 02:07:39.222 is more, kind of, the next level of these entrepreneurs. And 02:07:39.234 --> 02:07:43.472 one thing that I really found interesting was I asked them how 02:07:43.484 --> 02:07:47.837 are you gonna service the internet here? You obviously are gonna 02:07:47.849 --> 02:07:51.879 have high broadband needs. And they are gonna use a company 02:07:51.891 --> 02:07:56.250 that started in their Fresno hub to do that service, and they're 02:07:56.262 --> 02:08:00.230 going to bring fiber into the building there, so it's this 02:08:00.242 --> 02:08:04.665 really great example of how we need new players in the technology 02:08:04.677 --> 02:08:08.642 space and really dedicated to the communities that need it 02:08:08.654 --> 02:08:12.882 the most, so it was really great to meet them, and I hope that 02:08:12.894 --> 02:08:17.202 we can partner with them someday as they grow across the state. 02:08:18.949 --> 02:08:23.388 I wanted to mention this one thing I 02:08:23.400 --> 02:08:27.918 attended a meeting of the Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group, 02:08:27.930 --> 02:08:32.308 about a week and a half ago, that included a long discussion with 02:08:32.320 --> 02:08:36.445 each of the three IOUs about their PSPS events and protocols, 02:08:36.457 --> 02:08:40.633 and the group had asked them to come in the Fall. They weren't 02:08:40.645 --> 02:08:45.033 able to because they were the midst of the shut offs but it was a 02:08:45.045 --> 02:08:49.160 very very fruitful discussion, and in particular, each of the 02:08:49.172 --> 02:08:53.432 IOU leads said that they would focus attention on disadvantaged 02:08:53.444 --> 02:08:57.486 communities, consider appointing a point person to deal with 02:08:57.498 --> 02:09:02.217 disadvantaged communities, and consider disadvantage in their decision 02:09:02.229 --> 02:09:06.675 making process, both in terms of which communities to focus on and 02:09:06.687 --> 02:09:10.880 where to prioritize both preventative investments and recovery 02:09:10.892 --> 02:09:15.336 investments. I want to thank the utilities for their participation 02:09:15.348 --> 02:09:19.870 in that. Thank the Disadvantaged Communities Advisory Group, and we 02:09:19.882 --> 02:09:24.065 will be following up through the implementation plans that the 02:09:24.077 --> 02:09:28.739 utilities file to make sure that they follow up on their commitments. 02:09:28.764 --> 02:09:33.900 All right. My turn. As I mentioned earlier, 02:09:33.900 --> 02:09:39.080 my former Chief of Staff, Rachel Peterson, is 02:09:39.092 --> 02:09:44.430 now acting Deputy Director, or whatever, I'm not sure what her title is, 02:09:44.442 --> 02:09:49.993 in the Safety and Enforcement Division's New Policy branch. So I am excited 02:09:50.005 --> 02:09:54.983 to introduce Christine Powell who began as my Acting Chief of Staff 02:09:54.995 --> 02:10:00.470 on Monday February 3. Since starting at the PUC in August 2018, Kristina's 02:10:00.482 --> 02:10:05.311 served as an Administrative Law Judge on a variety of proceedings 02:10:05.323 --> 02:10:10.438 including PG&E's gas transmission and storage case, the SB 237 direct 02:10:10.450 --> 02:10:15.578 access rulemaking, and the Commission's recent natural gas rulemaking 02:10:15.590 --> 02:10:21.283 that we started last meeting and she was the assigned judge and I immediately 02:10:21.295 --> 02:10:26.122 took her away. Her prior positions include six years as an Energy 02:10:26.134 --> 02:10:31.248 attorney for the, for FERC's office of the General Counsel, and three 02:10:31.260 --> 02:10:36.313 years as a public accountant for Price Waterhouse Coopers. She has a 02:10:36.325 --> 02:10:41.436 JD from Santa Clara University, a Master of Science in administrative 02:10:41.448 --> 02:10:46.644 Studies from Boston College, and a Bachelor of Business Administration 02:10:46.656 --> 02:10:51.699 and Accountancy from Howard University. So I'm super excited to have 02:10:51.711 --> 02:10:56.840 Christine on my team, and I know you will all enjoy working with her. 02:11:00.140 --> 02:11:05.226 So thank you very 02:11:05.238 --> 02:11:09.861 much, Christine, for joining me. Okay. 02:11:09.873 --> 02:11:18.894 I think that's it. Are we all set? Okay, so we will be adjourning to Closed 02:11:18.906 --> 02:11:23.283 Session, and our next regular meeting 02:11:23.295 --> 02:11:28.396 will be on February 27th in San Francisco 02:11:28.408 --> 02:11:33.385 and President Batjer will be wielding the 02:11:33.397 --> 02:11:37.910 red gavel at that meeting. Thank you.