Q: Hello, following up our PGE Budget presentation I am forwarding you the following information. Jessica - the 2002 Capital Slide has been revised to be consistent with the NNG disclosure schedule. The decommissioning forecast is up by $1.6 MM, however since this is funded by the decommissioning trust it should not be an issue. Tracy - Do you have a time and agenda set for the Nov. 1 dry run of the budget presentation? I may be sitting in for Piro so please keep me posted as to what the plan is. Rod - you asked for some detail on our IT capital expenditures. The file IT_Teresa includes the requested detail. Note that in our UE-115 ratecase we were authorized to expend up to $96.8 MM for the 2000-2002 budget years. This is a balancing account, such that if we don't expend the money we have to refund it to customers. As an fyi - I've pasted in below the language from our UE-115 Stipulation on IT costs. Q. What is the basis for the stipulation relating to issue S-45, CIS / IT Disallowance? A. After a Staff review of new IT systems and their associated capital costs, Staff has determined PGE's capital costs for new IT systems to be prudent. As a result, the Parties agreed to full recovery of PGE's IT investments, subject to a Staff audit. PGE will place into base rates 100% of the 2002 revenue requirement related to the 2000, 2001, and 2002 capital additions for the CIS/IT capital items listed below. The 2002 revenue requirement included in base rates will be trued-up to the actual revenue requirement for the CIS/IT capital costs. OPUC Staff will audit PGE's actual capital expenditures for the CIS/IT capital items listed below. 1. Customer information system. 2. Enterprise resources planning (ERP) system. 3. Network meter reading (NMR) backbone and data store (excluding the meters). 4. Miscellaneous capitalized information technology costs. Some of the forecasted 2000-2002 capital additions may be delayed until 2003. Delayed costs can also be recovered, subject to the same Staff audit procedures and standards. Only those costs that are reasonable and prudent will be authorized for inclusion in the "actual" revenue requirement calculation. Accordingly, customers will receive a refund for any costs PGE does not expend or costs the OPUC finds imprudent.
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A: PGE 2002 Capital Costs and IT Detail

Q: I asked Mike this week if your baby was here, and he said that you had just returned to the office. Congratulations on the birth of your little girl. I hope that all three of you are surviving those first few weeks of adjustment and that sleep is not too short a commodity in your house! I will look forward to seeing pictures of Lauren when I am next in London. You do know that now that you are a dad that it is a requirement to be armed with adorable pictures at all times? !
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Q: DUE TO THE RECENT TRAGEDY AND DAMAGE IN NEW YORK WE ARE EXPERIENCING SOME LOCAL INTERNET CONNECTION PROBLEMS. WE APOLOGIZE FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE THIS MAY CAUSE. KUDLOW'S TAKE By Lawrence Kudlow THE PRICE WE MUST PAY We are at war. And war changes everything. After today's heinous crimes committed by terrorists against the U.S. and the rest of civilized humanity, there must be a sea change in American policies if we are to effectively play the rough hand that God has dealt us. We are at war. And war changes everything, including policies. We must now embrace war policies. Among the carnage and massive human suffering there is an important wake-up call that must be heeded by Democrats and Republicans alike: We live in a dangerous world, and we must never forget how utterly important it is to maintain our defenses in order to preserve freedom and democracy and our way of life. The terrorist invasion of the U.S. mainland underscores the urgent need to rebuild the defense and national security structure that has slowly but steadily eroded in recent years. Barbaric terrorists have revealed significant flaws in our intelligence systems and in our security arrangements at home. This will all have to be changed. The threat of terrorist use of nuclear or other weapons of massive destruction hammers home the urgent need for strategic defense measures and a general technological rebuilding of our defense posture. In financial terms, this will cost hundreds of billions of dollars. So be it. It's a drop in the bucket for the defense of freedom. We will sell bonds to finance military security. Bonds will finance investment in freedom. In economic policy terms, today's terrorist invasion similarly changes everything. To backstop national security recovery we must take aggressive actions to stimulate economic recovery. It was Reagan who argued 20 years ago that U.S. economic decline in the 1970s stimulated Soviet adventurism and expansionism. Reagan knew that economic recovery at home would insure international recovery abroad. In an interesting book by Professor Gary Dean Best, entitled Pride, Prejudice, and Politics, a similar point was made about the linkage between domestic economic policy and international security policy. Prof. Best noted that the failure of the U.S. to recover from the Depression - where even as late as 1940 the unemployment rate was 14.6% - created an image that the economically-plagued U.S. would be a weak player on the world political scene. Quite simply, Best argued that economic weakness at home encouraged Hitler and Japan abroad. In today's terms, one cannot help but wonder whether Mideast-based terrorist groups do not think that their energy-producing state government sponsors can simply turn the dial, tighten oil production, and thereby weaken the American economy even more. Is it entirely a coincidence that the terrorist actions aimed at closing down Wall Street, closing down the Pentagon, and even closing down the U.S. government, have occurred in the immediate aftermath of worsening economic news and slumping stock market performance? No matter what the cost, the U.S. must be prepared to restore its economy. Phony lockboxes must be thrown out the window. Unnecessary obsessions over debt retirement must be driven away. Now is the time for aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus to promote growth and finance freedom. Substantial tax cuts on individuals, businesses, capital investment, and equipment depreciation should be immediately put into place. Lower tax rates across the board will aid recovery by reducing production and investment costs while stimulating an entrepreneurial economic return. The Federal Reserve Board must substantially increase the volume of bank reserves to reliquefy the financial system and the economy. Steps to promote energy production must be taken aggressively. Here in New York, with the destruction of the World Trade Center, those of us in the financial community will grieve over the sad and tragic loss of husbands and wives who worked Downtown. So many of us involved in politics and government will know people who lost their lives in the plane hijackings. While we grieve sadly, our anger will demand immediate U.S. retaliation to clean out the terrorist criminals and the states that sponsor them. We know who they are. We know where they are. And we will hope and pray that president Bush takes immediate and effective actions. But amidst the grieving and the anger, none of us should lose sight of the long-term goal of preserving our freedom and democracy. This is a national security goal, and it is also an economic security goal. What happened today changes everything. Lord give us the strength to learn from it and take the right actions to preserve it.
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KUDLOW'S TAKE -- National Review Online - September 11, 2001