Momentum: Gas RD&D Workshop Program

When the California Public Utilities Commission required gas utilities to publicly report on their clean energy research for the first time as a joint program, it created a problem none of the organizations had solved before. Three separate entities reporting on Research, Development, and Deployment work, including decarbonization programs and gas system integrity, had to appear before ratepayers as a coherent whole. The requirement existed to create transparency. Without a real communications strategy behind it, a forum like that produces exactly the opposite.

PG&E, SoCalGas, and the California Energy Commission each had their own audiences, their own communications norms, and their own accountability to the CPUC. None of them was the host. All of them were on record. Getting that dynamic right in front of a public audience required a communications architecture that could hold all three together without making any one of them look like they were running the show.

We built that architecture. The strategic work started with establishing a shared public identity for the joint program, one that gave ratepayers a clear understanding of who was presenting and why, without the event collapsing into competing institutional voices. From there, we developed the agenda, scripted the program flow, and designed the presentation materials to match the format CPUC proceedings expect. The live production maintained separate tracks for speakers, moderators, and the public comment queue, which kept the regulatory interaction clean and on the record. We timed public comment, directed audio access, and managed the live question document so nothing was lost between the event and the filing.

After the session, we produced the complete post-event package: transcript, video, audio, and an AI-assisted executive summary, structured to extend the session’s content beyond the live audience and into the public record. The consolidated comment document was delivered ahead of the state filing deadline.

The workshop fulfilled the regulatory requirement. The documentation met the deadline. Momentum extended the program for future cycles rather than rebuilding from scratch, which is how you know the infrastructure held.

Ratepayers show up to these workshops with real questions and a fair amount of skepticism. A utility that runs a polished, organized, credible public forum is doing something more than checking a compliance box. It’s demonstrating that the people spending ratepayer money on clean energy research take the accountability seriously.