Content area
Full text
Regulatory experts on March 11 called on lawmakers to impose strict limits on ex parte communications between California utility regulators and the utilities they oversee, saying the state Public Utilities Commission is unlike almost every other state commission in the nation in allowing utility lobbyists to exert influence on decision-makers.
At a California State Senate Energy and Utilities Committee oversight hearing, experts said private meetings should be banned for all contested proceedings including rate cases because such meetings between utility officials and commissioners, advisory staff and PUC managers undermine due process, transparency and decision-making that is supposed to be based only on evidence and record in the proceedings.
The abuse of ex parte communications at the PUC is an "unprecedented example of lawlessness," said Ed Howard, senior counsel with the University of San Diego law school.
The senators agreed that significant concerns were raised, and committee Chairman Ben Hueso said he hoped legislation would lead to better decision-making and better pricing for consumers. Earlier he said, "We will see if lobbying should be banned."
Sen. Jerry Hill, a frequent critic of the PUC and its handling of the case of PG&E Corp. subsidiary Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s San Bruno natural gas pipeline disaster under former PUC President Michael Peevey, said laws should be strengthened to keep deals from being made behind closed doors between utilities and their regulators to ensure customers are protected.
In Focus:
Dinner, drinks, lobbying advice: Vast email trove lays bare PG&E-CPUC coziness Years of behind-the-scenes correspondence between PG&E Corp. and the California Public Utilities Commission confirms their close relationship, say critics of the regulator and utility.
City of San Bruno to make public 65,000 emails between PG&E, CPUC Roughly 65,000 emails exchanged between Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and the California Public Utilities Commission will become public.
Pointing to the scandal over...