Opinion ID: 726753
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: 1995 Partial Approvals

Text: 38 In November 1995, several months after the district court's dismissal of Cal CNG's complaint, the CPUC concluded Phase II of its investigation and rulemaking and issued an order partially approving the applications that the utilities, including SoCalGas, had submitted in response to the issuance of the 1993 guidelines at the completion of Phase I. 7 Re Utility Involvement in the Market for Low-Emission Vehicles, 165 P.U.R.4th 503, 1995 WL 768974 (Cal.P.U.C.1995). SoCalGas's application had included a proposal to use ratepayer funds to construct at least 67 additional NGV fueling stations for the use of its customers. Id. at 545. The CPUC did not approve that portion of SoCalGas's application, finding that the risk that the ratepayers would never recover any of the funds used for such construction was too great. Id. at 545-47. Because the CPUC rejected this portion of SoCalGas's application, it did not fully address the unfair-competition concerns that other parties had raised in the proceeding. The commission did state, however, that [t]here are many companies that are interested in competing in the market for the construction and operation of refueling stations at customer or other private sites and that [a]ny future utility refueling station program must be designed to avoid giving the utility any market advantage, based on its monopoly status. Id. at 547. That meant, the commission concluded, that construction, operation, and commodity charges must be fully compensatory. Id. In other words, no ratepayer funds could be used to subsidize the utility's costs of fueling stations or the price it charged purchasers of such stations. The legislative goals had been rebalanced again, and state policy had changed as a consequence: the need for fair competition in the NGV-infrastructure market now completely prevented utilities from using ratepayer funds to construct and maintain NGV fueling stations. 39