Assembly Bill (AB) 1002 signed by the Governor on September 29, 2000 directs the Commission to establish a gas surcharge to fund public purpose programs (PPP) such as low income customer assistance, energy efficiency, and research and development. The PPP gas surcharge is imposed on all natural gas consumed in this state, and is charged to all consumers of natural gas in the state of California, including public utility customers and consumers who receive gas service from alternative service providers.
There are currently several programs being implemented and funded under the PPP gas surcharge. These programs include the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE), the Low Income Energy Efficiency (LIEE), Energy Efficiency (EE), Direct Assistance Program (DAP), Public Purpose Research, Development, and Demonstration (RD&D), and Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP). The largest of these programs is for the CARE discount. The CPUC and the Board of Equalization (BOE) administer the PPP.
CARE currently provides a 20 percent discount on monthly natural gas bills for qualified low or fixed income households and housing facilities. Qualifications are based on the number of people living in the program participant’s home and corresponding total annual household income. The cost of the discounts as well as the administrative cost of the CARE program are recovered from all non-CARE eligible customers that include third party gas volumes of those bypassing the utilities’ system to interstate pipelines but exclude electric generation and wholesale loads to avoid any duplication of discount payments on the electric side.
DRA is seeking Commission denial of the joint application, A.07-12-006, of PG&E, SoCalGas, and SDG&E to reallocate the costs of Gas Public Purpose surcharges collected from their gas transportation customers.
DRA Rebuttal
DRA-1 Addresses Cost allocation of CARE program
DRA-2 Addresses the proposed method of cost allocation for all PPP costs
DRA Protest