# No. 15-0005

______________________________ 

# In the Supreme Court of Texas

______________________________ ONCOR ELECTRIC DELIVERY COMPANY LLC, ET AL., Petitioners

v. PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION OF TEXAS, ET AL.,

Respondents

______________________________ ONCOR’S UNOPPOSED MOTION TO EXCEED WORD LIMITATION

______________________________ From the Third Court of Appeals at Austin, Texas

No. 03-11-00072-CV

______________________________ TO THE HONORABLE SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS: Petitioner Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC (“Oncor”) respectfully requests permission to exceed the 2,400 word limit for a reply to a response for a petition for review. See Tex. R. App. P. 9.4(i)(2)(E) & 9.4(i)(4).
1. This case is an appeal from a 2008 administrative ratemaking proceeding involving Oncor before the Public Utility Commission of Texas (“PUC”). The PUC issued a final Order on Rehearing on November 30, 2009, from which several interested parties appealed to Travis County District Court. FILED 15-0005 7/29/2015 11:25:10 AM tex-6270462 SUPREME COURT OF TEXAS BLAKE A. HAWTHORNE, CLERK2

The District Court signed its final judgment in January 2011. On further appeal, the Third Court of Appeals, after considering motions for rehearing and en banc reconsideration, issued a modified opinion on December 4, 2014, of its August 6, 2014 opinion. Oncor filed a petition for review in the Supreme Court of Texas on February 19, 2015, raising six points of error. Two other parties to the case below—Steering Committee of Cities Served by Oncor (“Cities”), and State of Texas’ Agencies and Institutions of Higher Learning (“State Agencies”)—also filed petitions for review. On June 25, 2015, six different parties, including Oncor, filed responses to the three petitions. The three petitioners then filed a joint, unopposed motion for extension of time to file replies, which this Court granted on July 6, 2015. Replies are now due on July 30, 2015.
2. Oncor requests permission to exceed the 2,400 word limit for a reply brief by no more than 600 words. Good cause supports this request.
3. Oncor requires a longer reply to address the multiple responses to its petition for review. The Rules of Appellate Procedure provide that “[a] reply to a
response to a petition for review” may not exceed 2,400 words. Tex. R. App. P. 9.4(i)(2)(E) (emphasis added). However, the rules do not specifically address the case of a single, combined reply to multiple responses. Here, Oncor must reply to four responses totaling more than 16,000 words. PUC filed a 4,369-word response3

addressing all six of Oncor’s issues, 1 and the remaining three respondents filed responses concerning Oncor’s issues 1-3: Cities filed a 3,197-word response; Texas Industrial Energy Consumers filed a 4,343-word response; and the Office of Public Utility Counsel filed a 4,477-word response. In this case, Oncor requests to exceed the prescribed word limit by only the amount necessary to fairly reply to the points raised in each response.
4. The nature and complexity of the case also supports Oncor’s request to exceed the word limitation. The issues in Oncor’s petition concern the interpretation of multiple statutory provisions that are part of a complex regulatory framework. The administrative record contains thousands of pages, and three different adjudicative bodies have issued opinions on the issues. In view of the complexity of the case, the number of issues presented, and the number of respondents to Oncor’s petition, Oncor’s request for up to an additional 600 words to reply is warranted. 5. Counsel for all parties have conferred by email and/or telephone about this matter, and no party opposes the relief sought in this motion.

1 A portion of PUC’s response addressed issues raised in Cities’ petition for review.4 PRAYER
6. For the reasons above Oncor respectfully requests that the Court grant leave to file a combined reply brief totaling no more than 3,000 words in length, 600 words in excess of the limit prescribed by Rule 9.4(i)(2)(E), and for such other and further relief to which they may be entitled. Respectfully submitted,

Howard Fisher State Bar No. 07051500 Senior Counsel Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC 1601 Bryan Street, Suite 23-035C Dallas, Texas 75201-3411 214.486.3026 (phone) 214.486.3221 (fax) howard.fisher@oncor.com /s/ Thomas S. Leatherbury Thomas S. Leatherbury State Bar No. 12095275 Matthew C. Henry State Bar No. 00790870 VINSON & ELKINS LLP Trammell Crow Center 2001 Ross Avenue, Suite 3700 Dallas, Texas 75201 214.220.7700 (phone) 214.999.7792 (fax) tleatherbury@velaw.com mhenry@velaw.com Jonah D. Jackson State Bar No. 24071450 VINSON & ELKINS LLP 2801 Via Fortuna, Suite 100 Austin, Texas 78746-7568 (512) 542-8536 (phone) (512) 236-3208 (fax) jjackson@velaw.com Counsel for Oncor Electric Delivery Company, LLC5 CERTIFICATE OF CONFERENCE I hereby certify that on July 28 & 29, 2015, I conferred with counsel for all parties by email and/or telephone regarding the relief requested in this motion. All counsel indicated that they do not oppose the relief requested.
/s/ Thomas S. Leatherbury Thomas S. Leatherbury

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I certify that the foregoing document was electronically filed and served on July 29, 2015, on the following counsel of record:
PUBLIC UTILITY COMMISSION
Elizabeth R. B. Sterling Office of the Attorney General Environmental Protection Division 300 W. 15 th Street Austin, TX 78701 Elizabeth.sterling@texasattorneygeneral.gov ALLIANCE OF TXU/ONCOR CUSTOMERS Alfred R. Herrera Jason Wakefield Herrera & Boyle PPLC 816 Congress Ave., Suite 1250 Austin, TX 78701 (512) 474-1492 aherrera@herreraboylelaw.com jwakefield@herreraboylelaw.com

OFFICE OF PUBLIC UTILITY COUNSEL Christiaan Siano Office of Public Utility Counsel 1701 N. Congress Ave Suite 9-180 Austin, TX 78701 Christiaan.siano@opuc.texas.gov STEERING COMMITTEE OF CITIES SERVED BY ONCOR Thomas L. Brocato Lloyd Gosselink Rochelle & Townsend PC 816 Congress Ave., Suite 1900 Austin, TX 78701 tbrocato@lglawfirm.com6

STATE AGENCIES & INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER LEARNING Katherine H. Farrell Office of the Attorney General Administrative Law Division Energy Rates Section 300 W. 15 th Street Austin, TX 78701 (512) 475-4237 katherine.farrell@texasattorneygeneral.gov TEX-LA ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE OF TEXAS INC Mark C. Davis John T. Wright Holland & Knight 1005 Congress Ave., Suite 950 Austin, TX 78701 mark.davis@hklaw.com john.t.wright@hklaw.com

RAYBURN COUNTRY ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE, INC. Campbell McGinnis Shawn P. St. Clair McGinnis Lochridge & Kilgore 600 Congress Ave., Suite 2100 Austin, TX 78701 cmcginnis@mcginnislaw.com sstclair@mcginnislaw.com CENTERPOINT ENERGY HOUSTON ELECTRIC, LLC Macey Reasoner Stokes Baker Botts L.L.P. One Shell Plaza, 910 Louisiana Houston, TX 77002 macey.stokes@bakerbotts.com

TEXAS INDUSTRIAL ENERGY CONSUMERS Debora Alsup Phillip Oldham Benjamin Hallmark Thompson & Knight LLP 98 San Jacinto Blvd., Suite 1900 Austin, TX 78701 debora.alsup@tklaw.com phillip.oldham@tklaw.com benjamin.hallmark@tklaw.com
/s/ Jonah Jackson Jonah Jackson