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             California Public Utilities Commission
505 Van Ness Avenue, Room 5301            San Francisco, CA 94102
CONTACT: Dianne Dienstein           November 15, 1995  CPUC - 106
         415-703-2423

   CPUC HEARING ON KERN COUNTY PG&E ENERGY BASELINE ALLOWANCE

    The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will hear
Kern County Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) customers explain why
their baseline energy allowances should be increased at a public
participation hearing on Thursday, December 7, in Bakersfield.
    Commissioner Josiah L. Neeper will preside at the 7 p.m.
hearing to be held in the County Board of Supervisors Chambers,
1115 Truxtun Avenue.
    Kern County resident Cassandra Ballestero and 170 other Kern
County PG&E customers filed a formal complaint with the
Commission arguing that the baseline allowances PG&E has assigned
to Kern County are too low and do not comply with Public
Utilities Code requirements.  Public Utilities Code Section 739
requires electric customers be given a baseline allowance of
50-60 percent of the average residential consumption at a reduced
rate.  The statute is designed to assure that residential
customers' basic electricity requirements are reasonably priced.
To promote energy conservation, customers who use more than the
baseline allowance pay higher rates.
    Electricity rates, including baseline and above-baseline
rates, are set by the Commission in a utility's general rate
case.  The Commission is currently considering a proposed
decision in PG&E's general rate case that would reduce rates in
general by a half billion dollars, and will make its final
decision in December.  However, the Commission is considering and
will decide this complaint separately from the general rate case.
The public participation hearing enables the CPUC to hear
firsthand from Kern County residents about the baseline allowance
issue.
                            - more -
    Anyone wishing to comment at the hearing can sign up to do so
at the County Board of Supervisors Chambers just before the
hearing begins at 7 p.m., and will be called to speak in the
order of sign up.  Anyone who cannot attend the hearing may send
comments to the Commission.  State your comments relate to
C.94-12-051 and send them to: CPUC Public Advisor, California
Public Utilities Commission, 107 S. Broadway, Room 5109, Los
Angeles, CA 90012.
    The hearing room is accessible to the physically challenged.
Special arrangements, such as sign language interpreters, may be
made by calling the CPUC Public Advisor at 213-897-3544.


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