A W.I.S.H Awarded Intervenor Compensation in California for Work on Low-Income Energy Proceedings (October 2009)

A W.I.S.H Awarded Intervenor Compensation in California for Work on Low-Income Energy Proceedings (October 2009)

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently awarded $86,473.99 to A W.I.S.H. for its substantial contributions to Decision 08-11-031. A W.I.S.H has been awarded a cumulative total of over $280,000 by the CPUC for its work on low-income solar and efficiency proceedings these past few years.

Background (from the CPUC announcement):

"Decision (D.) 08-11-031 approved the energy-related low income programs totaling approximately $3.6 billion for our four major investor-owned utilities (IOUs) for 2009-2011. The Low Income Energy Efficiency (LIEE) program budgets approved total almost $1 billion for that period, and the California Alternate Rates for Energy (CARE) subsidy budgets will be nearly $2.6 billion.

With ratepayer funding at these levels, the low income programs can no longer operate with a business-as-usual approach. As the Commission stated in its adopted California Long-Term Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan (Plan),1 the LIEE program has evolved into a resource program that garners significant energy savings in our state while providing an improved quality of life for California's low income population.

The utilities affected by this D.08-11-031 proposed significant LIEE budget increases, as we asked them to do in D.07-12-051, a decision that set forth a new, strategic direction for the Commission's LIEE program, and emphasized the program's capacity for energy savings, while acknowledging the LIEE program's contributions to the quality of life of low income communities. D.08-11-031 created a framework within which to carry out this vision."