CPUC Questions

Emails show UCLA, CPUC deal making

Emails show UCLA, CPUC deal making — Former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey filed a public notice disclosing an email he received from UCLA regarding grants for greenhouse gas research. What he didn’t disclose was his own reply, which indicates ongoing behind-the-scenes maneuvering involving Peevey, Commissioner Michel Florio and university faculty.
UT San Diego — May 12, 2015

PUC President Michael Picker calls emails with utilities ‘troubling’

Emails portraying overly chummy and questionable contacts between California utilities and state regulators are troubling, the new president of the Public Utilities Commission told lawmakers Tuesday.

Los Angeles Times — March 3, 2015

Utility agency taps $882-an-hour lawyer

The California Public Utilities Commission has hired one of the top criminal defense attorneys in the state to respond to investigations of improper contact between regulators and the utility companies they oversee.
UT — San Diego — February 19, 2015

PG&E reacted fast to ex-PUC chief’s complaint about size of his bill

en the state’s former top electricity regulator complained about a new Pacific Gas & Electric Co. smart meter at his vacation home, company executives reacted swiftly. A handful of emails — part of more than 65,000 released two weeks ago by PG&E and the Public Utilities Commission — revealed that then-PUC President Michael Peevey had a beef about the size of his monthly bill in 2011: It had more than doubled after a wireless meter was installed.
Los Angeles Times — February 8, 2015

Meeting links CPUC probe to San Onofre

Southern California Edison belatedly disclosed on Monday that a company executive met privately with former regulator Michael Peevey in Poland two years ago to discuss the San Onofre nuclear power plant and the resulting investigation into its failure.
San Diego Union Tribune — February 8, 2015

PG&E wields pervasive influence at CPUC, now described as a rogue agency

What’s being described as the pervasive influence of PG&E with the state Public Utilities Commission extended well beyond disgraced former PUC President Michael Peevey and included other commissioners and top PUC staffers.

That’s the conclusion of Bay Area political leaders, state legislators and a former PUC official who have reviewed a sampling of the 65,000 emails released by PG&E late Friday.
Contra Costa Times — January 13, 2015

Agents search former CPUC presidents home in PG&E Case

State investigators seized computers and other items from the homes of former California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey and an ousted Pacific Gas and Electric Co. executive at the heart of the judge-shopping controversy that has embroiled the regulatory agency for months, The Chronicle has learned.

SFGate — January 28, 2015

Town seeks information on CPUC relationship to Carlyle companies

While the town pursues a request for a boatload of records from the California Public Utilities Commission, the town attorney is challenging the completeness of the commission’s response. The Town of Apple Valley considers the records, requested under the California Public Records Act, to be critical to its efforts to purchase or acquire Apple Valley Ranchos Water Co., the town said in a statement. As part of our due diligence, we have requested all records that reflect a relationship between the CPUC and the Carlyle Group and its related companies. Town Attorney John Brown said in the statement.
Victorville Daily Press — December 4, 2014

Shake up at PUC, PG&E over emails related to San Bruno blast case

Stung by criticism that the Public Utilities Commission had developed too cozy of a relationship with the state’s largest utility, PUC President Michael Peevey removed himself from further proceedings over a huge explosion in 2010 that killed eight people in the Bay Area city of San Bruno.

Los Angeles Times — September 15, 2014

CPUC Untrustworthy?

It is axiomatic that the bigger government gets — and it’s been growing like Topsy since the Founding Fathers voted in favor of the Declaration of Independence back in 1776 — the less the people of the United States hold it in trust.

Victorville Daily Press — August 17, 2014