CPUC Embroiled in Controversy

The scandal surrounding the California Public Utilities Commission has become much more than a tempest in a teapot, and threatens to take down Commissioners. In recent developments, Commission President Michael Peevey said he would not seek a new appointment when his current term expires at the end of the year. Commissioner Michel Florio last Wednesday recused himself from any further deliberations regarding the $1.4 billion penalty being considered against PG&E for safety lapses which resulted in a gas pipeline explosion in the City of San Bruno. And Commissioner Sandoval has instituted a “no ex parte contact” policy on any open rulemaking cases, which applies to her advisors as well as herself. Emails that have recently become public between Commissioners, their top staff, and PG&E have already cost several PG&E and CPUC executives their jobs. The emails from PG&E suggested which Administrative Law Judges the company would prefer to hear the gas case penalty phase. The responses from Commissioners and staff offering to help in judge-shopping clearly expose a relationship that had gotten way too cozy. Speaking of ex parte contacts, PG&E got hit with a decision by Administrative Law Judge Hallie Yacknin on Thursday finding the company in violation of Commission ex parte reporting rules, and requiring PG&E to “…report all communications with any Commission staff acting in an advisory capacity, including but not limited to General Counsel, the Executive Director, Deputy Executive Directors, Division Directors, and advisory staff, regarding any substantive or procedural issue in an open formal adjudicatory or ratesetting proceeding, consistent with the reporting requirements of Rule 8.4, except that such notice shall be filed within one working day of the communication.” Since that time, parties on any number of service lists have been deluged with PG&E ex parte contact notices. The City of San Bruno’s City Manager Connie Jackson has called for Florio to resign over the matter, saying “we hope he will do the right thing.” E-mails from January 2014 show that Florio told a PG&E vice president that he would “do what I can on this end” to get the executive’s preferred administrative law judge assigned to a case that will decide whether customers will have to pay $1.3 billion for improvements PG&E undertook after its gas pipe blew up in San Bruno in 2010, killing eight people (in addition to the aforementioned $1.4 billion, which is a penalty). Florio’s former colleagues at The Utility Reform Network are asking for PG&E to release some 65,000 emails sent over the years between company staffers and the utilities commission. “We need to see all the emails so we can see what the deals were,” said TURN Executive Director Mark Toney. “It’s not right to let PG&E cherry-pick which emails to release and when to release them.” “The $1 billion question is, what were the backroom deals being discussed in the gas case?” One can only imagine what may be in those 65,000 emails, but if and when they are released, there will no doubt be more cannon fodder. The PUC is an agency under siege, and come January, you can bet there will be a raft of legislation introduced to “reform” the commission. This kind of reactive, knee-jerk lawmaking will be unlikely to improve the situation, but rather than genuine improvement based on calmly deliberated fundamental principles, will likely just hamstring the commission in some new way, while giving the legislative authors opportunity to claim “we put an end to (fill in the blank).” Despite his recent improprieties, President Peevey’s record of accomplishment on behalf of distributed energy, renewables, and GHG reduction has been solid, and it will be tough to find as good an advocate for advanced energy.

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CPUC Embroiled in Controversy

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