SAN FRANCISCO - Pacific Gas and Electric Company released the following
statement in response to today,s announcement by the Department of Energy,
directing the Western Area Power Authority (WAPA) to make upgrades to the
congested section of the Path 15 transmission line in Central California:

&As more power plants come on-line in California and the Western states over
the next few years, the transmission system needs to be enhanced to move the
new power to where it,s needed. The upgrades to be pursued by the Department
of Energy will help to eliminate the congestion that currently exists, and
provide additional room to move the output from the new power resources that
are planned and under construction in the Western United States.
&We applaud the DOE,s efforts to expand Path 15 in order to increase the
flow of electricity between Northern and Southern California.  The
participation of the federal government in this upgrade will be of
substantial benefit not only to California, but also to the entire Western
grid, particularly in terms of significantly expediting the permitting
process, as well as reducing the overall project cost.
&Clearly, in addition to California,s retail electricity customers, there
are several other groups that stand to benefit from increased Path 15
capacity - primarily municipally owned utilities, as well as federal and
state agencies like the California Department of Water Resources and the
Western Area Power Authority. Several times over the past decade, Pacific
Gas and Electric Company has attempted to work with these groups on ways to
fairly share the costs and benefits of any upgrade.  However, in each case,
these interests have declined to participate in upgrading Path 15, leaving
the cost of making the upgrade to be born only by PG&E,s retail customers.
In at least one case, the California Public Utilities Commission determined
the effort to upgrade Path 15 was uneconomic.
&In the meantime, the utility has made several low cost, high benefit
upgrades to Path 15, which have successfully increased its capacity.
Furthermore, earlier this year, the utility performed preliminary
environmental studies that should help expedite the development of an
upgrade of Path 15.
&Pacific Gas and Electric Company looks forward to working with the DOE and
WAPA to accelerate the development of this needed transmission upgrade.8