The company states: “American States Water announced that the California Supreme Court issued a ruling on July 8, 2024 that set aside a previously issued order by the California Public Utilities Commission in August 2020, which had mandated the discontinuation of an existing full revenue decoupling mechanism known as the Water Revenue Adjustment Mechanism used by investor owned water utilities since 2008 that, in conjunction with tiered rates, incentivizes water conservation. In response to the CPUC’s order, AWR‘s regulated water utility, Golden State Water Company, three other investor-owned water utilities and the California Water Association each separately filed a petition in 2021 with the Court to review the CPUC’s decision-making processes that resulted in discontinuing the use of the WRAM. As a result of the Court’s decision, portions of the CPUC’s August 2020 order, including the accompanying findings and conclusions that eliminated the water utilities’ abilities to request the WRAM, are being vacated. To encourage water conservation, the CPUC in 2008 recommended that water utilities implement tiered rates, where customers pay more per unit of water used as they use more water. In exchange for implementing the tiered rates, the CPUC allowed water utilities, including GSWC, to “decouple” revenue from the amount of water sold and authorized the use of the WRAM. Since their implementation in 2008, the tiered rates and the WRAM have promoted conservation while mitigating fluctuations in GSWC’s earnings due to changes in water consumption by its customers. In August 2023, GSWC filed a general rate case application for all its water regions and the general office that will determine new water rates for the years 2025 – 2027. Among other things, GSWC had requested the continuation of tiered rates and mechanisms to accommodate fully decoupled revenues and sales.”