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Southwest Gas Expansion ProjectsDecision #95-05-075Project Manager: Bruce Kaneshiro, (415) 703-1187, e-mail: bsk@cpuc.ca.gov Southwest Gas Corporation (Southwest) applied for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) in December 1993 for the construction of a natural gas distribution facility in the Lake Tahoe region. The project had four components: (1) upgrade of an existing distribution main line that transports natural gas from the California-Nevada border through forest land into the King’s Beach community; (2) a medium service line installed along Highway 267 starting at King’s Beach and ending in the city of Truckee (approximately 6 miles of line installed); (3) secondary natural gas pipeline extensions within Truckee and to various communities surrounding the city such as Prosser Lake, West River St., Glenshire subdivision, and Donner Lake; (4) extension of existing gas service along Highway 89 (the west shore of Lake Tahoe) to Talmont Estates and Tahoma/McKinney Estates (approximately 23 miles of extensions installed in existing roadways or graded shoulders.) The Commission adopted a Mitigated Negative Declaration for the project and approved Southwest’s application for a CPCN in April 1995 (D.95-04-075). As of 1997, Southwest has completed the first, second and fourth components of the project. In July 1997, Southwest filed an application with the Commission to modify the terms and conditions of the CPCN approved by the Commission. Specifically, Southwest claims that cost-overruns for the completed components of the project require an increase in the cost cap in order to finish a scaled-down version of the third component. (Southwest shareholders are responsible for costs in excess of the cap.) The application is under consideration by the Commission.
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