On a 5-0 vote, the California Public Utilities Commission approved revenue requirements for Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric that will decrease SoCal Gas ratepayers' costs by $33 million and SDG&E customers' rates overall by about $6.6 million. The CPUC's unanimous approval on December 2 adopts revenue settlements and specifically lowers SDG&E customers' electric bills by about $8.2 million while raising their gas rates by $1.6 million. For test year 2004, the commission authorized gas distribution revenues for SoCal Gas of $1.46 billion, as well as $755 million for SDG&E electric revenues and $204 million in gas costs. Commissioner Carl Wood cast his vote with reservations, noting that the decision does not require the Sempra utilities to comply with reporting requirements, including those on safety and gas use planning that were set out in the proceeding's scoping document. He and commissioner Loretta Lynch also pointed out that it ignores dozens of concerns raised by the Utility Consumers' Action Network. "It delivers a bad message," according to Wood. Wood, however, noted that the terms of this settlement approved at Thursday's meeting were not as "black box" as the many others that left stakeholders clueless as to how the regulators arrived at specific dollar amounts. Lynch cast her vote for the decision because both SDG&E and SoCal had been operating without CPUC guidance. "The CPUC reaffirms the validity of the negotiated settlement process," said Ed Van Herik, utility spokesperson. The decision excludes the cost of the Otay Mesa project from SDG&E's capital additions and adjusts its portion of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station revenues in accordance with the Southern California Edison general rate case previously adopted by the CPUC. Also on a unanimous vote, regulators agreed to boost funding for natural gas energy-efficiency programs by $19.7 million-a 20 percent increase this winter. The ruling applies to the state?s major investor-owned utilities. Increasing the pot of public-goods money is expected to save 8.7 millions therms of gas in 2005, said commissioner Susan Kennedy. She also noted that the funding for natural gas efficiency programs has not kept up with efficiency funding for electricity customers. The additional money will also allow utilities to reopen oversubscribed efficiency programs. Elizabeth McCarthy