The Committee assigned to review the Application for Certification (AFC) by AES Huntington Beach to retool Huntington Beach Generating Station Units 3 and 4 to produce 450 megawatts will conduct a Workshop and Evidentiary Hearing as discussed below.

The Committee Workshop and Evidentiary Hearing are extremely important events for citizens or agencies to learn about the potential impacts of the project and the mitigation proposed to overcome them and to voice their comments or concerns about the project. The Committee will use the information gathered at the Workshop and Evidentiary Hearing to prepare its Proposed Decision.

This NOTICE contains the following information:

1. Dates and places for the Committee Workshop and Evidentiary Hearing;
   
2. Purpose and procedures for the Workshop;
   
3. Purpose and procedures for the Evidentiary Hearing;
   
4. "Help line" to the Commission's Public Adviser;
   
5. Contacts at the Energy Commission;
   
6. Appendix A - Detailed Schedule for March 15 & 16, 2001
   
7. Appendix B - Working Group Discussion Topics
   

Workshop topics:
Group 1:
General Orders & Conditions
Land Use

Group 2:
Air Quality
Public Health
Hazardous Materials

Group 3:
Water Quality
Water Resources
Biology

Group 4:
Visual Resources
Noise

Group 5:
Socioeconomics

Group 6:
Geology
Traffic and Transportation
Waste Management
Soils
Cultural Resources
Alternatives
Efficiency
Reliability
Facility Design
Transmission System Engineering
Transmission Safety
Worker Safety
Compliance

The purpose of the workshop is to carefully examine public health and safety, environmental impacts and engineering aspects of the proposed power plant and all related facilities in an informal (non-legalistic) forum to have the Applicant, agencies, intervenors, and the public respond to the Staff's analysis in the Staff Assessment. The Staff Assessment will be available on March 9, 2001 on the Energy Commission's Website and will be electronically sent to anyone signing up with the Commission's Public Adviser.

Commission Website: www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/huntingtonbeach

Public Adviser: pao@energy.state.ca.us

To conduct this examination effectively and to assure that matters of public concern voiced at the Informational Hearing on February 21, 2001 are addressed, the Committee will conduct the Workshop through a series of Working Groups, addressing topics identified in the side bar.

On each topic discussed in the Staff Assessment, the Working Group facilitator will pose the following set of questions:

1. Is the Staff Assessment of the potential impact of the project complete and accurate? If not, explain.

2. Is the Staff's proposed mitigation and/or condition complete and effective? If not, what additional or more effective mitigation, condition, or project alternative is reasonably necessary, feasible and available?

The Committee expects responses to these questions from the Applicant, Commission staff, any participating public agency, and any participating party. Members of the public will also have an opportunity at the workshops to address these questions.

For the Committee, the goal is to attempt to reach consensus on Conditions of Certification in the Working Groups sufficient for inclusion in the Presiding Member's Proposed Decision. Therefore, the Working Group representative of a party must have the authority to make agreements on behalf of that party. Alternatively, any matter remaining in dispute will be addressed in Evidentiary Hearing the following day, March 16, 2001.

Written comments on the workshop topics can be submitted to the Energy Commission, Docket Unit (MS-4), 1516 - 9th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814. For written comments, an original and 11 copies are required. Please refer to Docket No. 00-AFC-13.

The purpose of the evidentiary hearings is to establish the record upon which this case will be decided through the taking of oral, written, or documentary evidence under oath from the Applicant, Commission staff, and others. All offered evidence must be relevant, non-cumulative oral or written information under oath and is subject to the direction of the Presiding Member and Hearing Officer. For the orderly and expeditious conduct of the Evidentiary Hearing, there will be no cross-examination of witnesses by other parties; instead opening and rebuttal testimony will be allowed.

There are three ways to make a presentation at the Evidentiary Hearing:

1. Become an official party or intervenor in the proceeding by filing a Petition to Intervene. Parties receive copies of all documents filed in the record of the proceeding.

2. Due to the extraordinary nature of this proceeding, the Committee has created a category of "other" participants who may offer sworn testimony without becoming a party to assure public access to the creation of the record upon which a decision will be based. A Petition to Intervene is not necessary to make this presentation.

3. Alternatively, members of the public who don't wish to "testify" may offer un-sworn public comment upon any matter discussed. These public comments will be entered into the record of the proceeding and may be used to supplement other evidence in the record. Public comments by themselves, however, are not sufficient to support a decision on an issue.

Members of the public may participate in all phases of the licensing process in a variety of ways. If you need information concerning public participation, please contact Roberta Mendonca, the Energy Commission's Public Adviser, at 916-654-4489 or, toll free in California, at 800-822-6228, or by e-mail at: pao@energy.state.ca.us

Information concerning the status of the project, notices and other relevant documents are available on the Commission's Web Site at:

www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/huntingtonbeach

Technical questions concerning the project should be addressed to the Energy Commission Staff's Project Manager, Jack Caswell, at 916-653-0062 or e-mail at: jcaswell@energy.state.ca.us

Questions of a legal or procedural nature should be directed to Garret Shean, the Hearing Officer, at 916-654-3893 or e-mail at: gshean@energy.state.ca.us

Media inquiries should be directed to Claudia Chandler, Assistant Executive Director for Media and Public Communications, at 916-654-4989 or by e-mail at: energia@energy.ca.gov