-: Hearing is to hear directly from West coast gas customers
and members of the public about this particular application.
I will start by providing some brief background,
on the Commission and the general rate case,
and introduce Ms. Juanita Hill,
from the Commissioner's Public Advisor's office.
We will then hope to hear a brief statement
from West Coast Gas.
Finally, most importantly, we will hear from all of you
participants that wish to provide public comments Today,
I ask that you press star one on your phone now.
to alert the operator who will start to cue
public speakers one at a time.
And once you're put on,
online please also unmute your phone,
And when prompted to say your name, and spell it,
and give your location, please.
The Public Utilities Commission
is the state agency
that decides how much money West Coast Gas may earn.
And the actual rates that will be included,
on your bills for electric service,
I mean for gas service.
The public utilities Commission have
five Commissioners who are appointed by the Governor
and confirmed by the state Senate.
While I manage the day-to-day activities of this case
which we call a General rate case.
The five Commissioners are ultimately the one's
who will decide and vote on whether or not to
approve West Coast Gasses requests or some other amount.
My job as the judge will be to evaluate all the evidence
in the proceeding and write a proposed decision
for the five Commissioners to consider.
The five Commissioners will decide,
whether to adopt the proposed decision from myself,
or adopt their own alternate decision,
based on the evidence in the proceedings.
It is estimated that the Commission will vote
on the decision in the fall.
I will now briefly summarize West Coast Gas application.
Last December,
West Coast Gas submitted its general rate case requests,
asking the Commission for approval of their expected costs
for owning and operating this company for the years,
2021 to 2024.
The expenses included in West Coast Gas rate case
application generally cover the gas pipes, meters,
employees and all the activities needed to deliver
gas to your home or business.
It's important to note that the costs that we are
talking about in this application
are just one part of West Coast Gas it's annual
operating expenses that impact customers rates.
Commission, authorizes recovery of the cost
that West Coast Gas actually incurs to
purchase natural gas on the open market.
These costs are directly passed on to consumers,
and West Coast Gas is not allowed to earn a profit on them.
The rate really sought in this application
only includes the cost of owning operating and managing
the gas distribution systems,
in the Mather and castle communities.
Right now though, we are here to receive comments
from the public regarding pub West coast gases requests
decrease rates based on a reduction of revenue requirement
by $15,750 in 2021.
if approved is filed,
West coast gas is total revenue requirement
will be approximately 2.36 million in 2021,
or .66% decrease from what it is currently authorized.
request is approved on average.
The impact on residential customers
will be a monthly decrease
of approximately 37 cents in 2021.
The information I summarize maybe found
on the Commission's website,
you can sign up to get documents in this proceeding,
and you can look at the documents filed for this proceeding.
We'll be focusing on a few issues
identified in the scoping memo in the docket card.
If you have questions regarding how to
access this information,
please contact the public advisor's office
at public .advisor
@cpuc.da.gov, advisors, A-D-V-I-S-O-R, or you can
call (866) 849-8390.
We want to hear what you think about West coast gas request.
Comments from the public can help,
the public utilities Commission
reached an informed decision.
The Commissioners, and I will pay close attention
to the opinions expressed during today's public hearing.
We have court reporters transcribing today's
hearing who will be taking
down everything that is said on the telephone.
If you do speak, we ask
that you spell your name and speak slowly and clearly so
that a reporter is able to capture everything that is said.
Also, please let us know where you're calling from.
The written transcript
of today's hearing will be available to myself
the Commissioners and posted publicly on the docket card.
What we call the docket card in this proceeding.
in addition to submitting oral comments today,
Written comments regarding West coast guesses
application may also be submitted.
on the Doked card for this proceeding. By going to
dpc.ca.gov
forward slash capital A two
zero zero nine zero zero two capital C comments, capital C
capital C-O-M-M-E-N-T-S, or comments.
And we have that on the screen right now.
As of today, we have not received public written
public comments that we do have people on the line.
But first I would like to invite Ms. Wanida Hill
from the Commissioners, from the Commissioner's Commissioned
public advisor office
to provide brief remarks regarding participation
it's proceeding,
Miss Hill, please proceed.
-: (Juanita Hill)Thank you, judge.
Welcome everyone.
My name is Juanita Hill
and I am the supervisor in the CPC public advisor's office.
the public advisor's office assist and advises the public
with participation in Commission proceedings.
First, I want to thank you all for participating today.
As the judge stated
public participation and input are essential
to the Commission's decision making process.
This is your opportunity to be heard,
to share your thoughts on the application,
with the Administrative Law Judge and the Commissioner.
If you have specific questions about the application
or your service, please reach out
to the public advisors office
at public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov
or visit the CPUC or the utilities website
for more information.
Second, if you or anyone, you know
is not able to make a comment today,
there are several other ways to become involved.
If you wish to find more information
on becoming a party,
subscribing to this proceeding
or submitting comments via email or the phone,
please go to our website, CPUC.ca.gov
or email the public advisor at public.adviser@cpuc.ca.gov.
All of this information is also on the notice
that you received for this public participation hearing.
We look forward to your comments today.
Thank you.
-: Thank you Ms. Hill,
ops, since there are potentially many people
who may want to speak, we each speaker limit
marks to just five minutes
reminder again, please press star one on your phone now,
so that the operator can begin to form the speaking queue.
And when you were put online,
unmute your phone and when prompted clearly,
say and spell your name and give your location.
Now we are hoping to hear
from Rey Sahar from West coast gas, but you're not
sure he was able to make it.
Evening, Mr. Sahar are you on the line?
His not here Mr. Sahar Okay, let me check.
Are there any public officials that would like to speak
that are on the line?
All right.
Well, we will now hear from members of the public.
Again, if you want to speak
and if not already done so, please press star one.
We have two public commenter's
on the phone.
but if there are others, please again plus press star one
and the operator will add you to the queue.
and again, we will give you five minutes,
and there will be a chime sounded when five minutes is up.
So again, please spell your name,
say your name and give your location.
with that operator, please call on
the first speaker in the queue.
-: Thank you, Our first speaker is Rick Mahaulcheck.
I apologize, and please state your location.
-: Ah Yes, Hi honor.
This is Rick Mahaulcheck
I am in Oak park, California.
Thank you for your time.
I am a little confused by the statement on your part
that there has been no public comments
because the woman that was speaking before
on the CPUC.ca.gov website, I see a number
of public comments in regards to this hearing.
So maybe, and I myself also went to that same site
and wrote comments, but having some
reservations as far as if the comments
were going to be arriving.
I looked and i notice some Southern California Edison
as to this hearing itself.
And it mentioned that this was taking place on Thursday
March 30th, at 6:00 PM that I not called earlier.
I never would have found out
that this is actually taking place this evening.
So, very disappointed that we can't inform the public
of what time these hearings are taking place.
But as far as personally, I absolutely oppose the West coast
gas proposal for increasing rates like any business.
And I am a business owner.
We're all held accountable, learning our business profitably
so we can stay in business.
Those that can't set like Southern California Edison
or West coast, have the luxury to put it upon the tax payers
to increase their rates when they can't run a business
efficiently.
with over 2 billion lawsuits over the wildfires,
along with other administrative expenses,
that's not exactly a business that's run effectively.
My greater concern is as a California resident
my entire life, 56 years old is that,
you look at the California
average cost per kilowatt hour of over 19 cents.
And the national average at around 13 and a half cents.
It's obvious that California's energy costs are
significantly higher than other States
to include the rest of the nation.
-: Excuse me Rick, is Rick?
-: It is Rick.
-: I'm just wondering if you have the
right proceeding because this is a gas case,
and the proposal is for a decrease.
-: Okay, Well then I stand corrected because
I gave my passcode to the gentlemen on this public hearing
as far as the Southern California Edison rate increase.
And if, again, I apologize because I can only go
by the information I'm given the tablet to me
from Southern California Edison.
-: Okay. Yeah.
This is not a Southern California Edison proceeding.
I would recommend that you call the public advisor's office
at the number that's on the screen.
And that way you can make sure you find
out when the Southern California Edison case is.
-: Okay. I apologize.
Good evening.
-: That's quite all right, operator.
Could you now the next commentator.
-: up next is Tony Williams and please state your location.
-: Hi, can you hear me?
-: Yes, just fine.
-: I would have to apologize like Rick
because I was under the assumption
that this was to discuss a rate hike
and not a decrease.
And I am in the Chatsworth area
and I've been here with this PSPS all year, unemployed.
And so I felt like I needed to voice my opinion on this,
but I was under the assumption,
This was for a rate increase.
So my apology didn't mean to waste anybody's time.
-: Okay. Well that's all right.
Where is the Chats worth area?
-: It's one exit from Simi Valley.
-: Oh, okay.
-: Yeah, like not one exit from the Ventura County and
and my power has been turned off,
record number of times this year.
And then this is
I just felt like, you know, this impacts seniors
is impacts people that need medical devices.
And, and like I said, I thought this was a talk
about rate increase,
where you know we have record unemployment,
and people losing houses and stuff like that.
It's, you know, like I said, I I'm
I'm sorry that I've got on this call now.
Cause I really thought this was about rate increase and so,
-: And you calling about Southern California Edison also?
-: Absolutely, Cause that's who gave me the email,
that's who notified me.
-: Okay. Again, I would call the public
advisor's office to find out when that hearing is.
-: Okay. Thank you guys.
Have a good day.
Keep up the good work.
-: All right, have a good evening.
Do we have another speaker?
Operator?
-: There are currently no speaker's.
-: Okay. Well let me just make one last request,
I mean if you wish to speak during the public comment
for the West coast gas general rate case,
please press star one now,
and unmute your phone when prompted.
Please clearly say your name and quite literally say
and spell your name and give us your location.
And I'll just, I'll wait,
another
five, 10 minutes and see if somebody like to speak
yeah, let's go off the record for a minute.
We're off the record?
I have some information for people on the line.
There is a Southern California edison
public participation next Tuesday, March 30th.
And you, you can find that information
about that public participation hearing
from the public advisor's office
in the same way that you received information
for this public participation hearing
which is for West coast gas.
All right.
We are Off the record?
Anybody have anything you wanna say?
I don't know that we need to wait 15 minutes.
Let's make it 10 minutes.
So, let's go back on the record.
At six twenty seven.
Ah, it's okay.
It looks like, the Southern California edison
and public participation next Tuesday, March 30th.
There are two of them.
One is at one thirty
and six.
but I would verify that with the notices,
from the public advisor's office.
Information on the Southern California Edison
public participation hearing is also available
on the daily calendar On the CPC website.
-: We will go back on the record in five minutes.
-: (rock music playing)
-: Go ahead, sir.
Okay.
I will ask one last time.
If, if anyone wishes to speak during this
during the public comment period, please press star one now,
unmute your phone and when prompted,
clearly say and spell your name and give your location.
Oh, I'm sorry.
We are back on the record.
I'll repeat that one more time.
If you wish to speak during the public comment period
please press star one, unmute your phone and when prompted
please clearly say and spell your
and give you a location.
Operator do we have anyone else in line to speak?
-: Not at this time, sir.
-: Okay. Then that concludes the speaking portion.
The public speaking portion
of this public participation hearing.
If any of you would like to provide
additional written comments after this hearing,
you may submit written comments
on the docked card for this proceeding, which can be found
on the Commission's website at cpuc.ca.gov/
capital A-2-0-0-9-0-0-2, Capital C-O-M-M-E-N-T-S
-: (telephone dialing note)
Assistance with providing additional comments
please contact the Commission's public advisor's office,
that concludes this evening's public participation hearing.
Thank you for your input and comments.
We're off the record.