Tag Archives: PG&E
Customers Of Clean Energy Programs Hit With Fee Increase
by Lizzie Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
Hundreds of protesters came from as far as San Diego to oppose the fee increase at Thursday’s meeting in San Francisco. They carried homemade signs reading “Stand Up to Natural Gas!” and “CPUC: Consumers Pay Again?!” Public comment on the change stretched for more than two hours. … PG&E originally filed an application to raise the fee by 70 percent in June, but submitted another request last month to as much as double it. The fee helps the power company pay for energy it contracted for when it had more customers, preventing remaining patrons from bearing the brunt of the costs. The charge is required by law and determined by a formula implemented by the CPUC in 2011. Read More ›
PG&E Lacks Documentation To Prove Pipelines Are Safe, Panel Says
by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle
“Together, these violations show how PG&E has made it nearly impossible for this commission to determine — more than five years after the San Bruno explosion — whether PG&E’s currently established” pipeline pressure levels are “actually legally justifiable,” [the watchdog office of the state Public Utilities Commission alleged. … office head] Joe Como said Wednesday that the company’s behavior is not excusable given that it lacks federally required records for 1,000 miles out of its more than 5,000-mile system. Read More ›
Mercury News editorial: Governor’s PUC Emails Should Be Public
by The Editorial Board, San Jose Mercury News
Brown stood by former PUC President Michael Peevey long after Peevey’s grossly inappropriate relationship with PG&E became clear. Under Peevey’s watch, the PUC let PG&E take money that was approved for pipeline safety and use it instead for executive compensation before the deadly 2010 San Bruno explosion. The governor also knew Peevey inappropriately engaged in secret talks with Southern California Edison, the majority owner of the San Onofre power plant in San Diego County. But the real surprise was this fall, when he vetoed the six-bill PUC transparency package that was passed unanimously by the Assembly and Senate. Read More ›
PG&E Looking To Raise Fee On Green Energy
by Lizzie Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
Early last month, the Pacific Gas and Electric Co. quietly filed an application to as much as double its exit fee for customers transferring to local green energy programs like CleanPowerSF. … It is ultimately up to the California Public Utilities Commission, which is scheduled to vote on the increase Thursday. If approved, it would take effect Jan. 1. … “It feels like an attack on local green energy programs,” [said Barbara Hale, assistant general manager for power for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission]. …“Did it knock us to the floor? No. Did we stagger? Yes. It’s up to the California PUC now.” Read More ›
From Warsaw To SF, The Roots Of Edison’s Historic Fine
by Chuck McFadden, Capitol Weekly
[The CPUC] levied the unprecedented fine as punishment for failing to disclose a series of meetings and emails, and for providing misleading testimony pertaining to the costs of shutting down the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Southern California Edison owns 70 percent of the station. … Left hanging was the question of whether the commission would revisit a previously approved settlement deal that has ratepayers coughing up to 70 percent of the $4.7 billion cost of shutting down San Onofre. … The $16.7 million fine is the largest ever imposed on a utility for these specific violations. Read More ›
San Bruno Says PG&E Too Cozy With CPUC’s Mike Florio
by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle
Newly released documents show that PG&E executives had meetings, e-mail exchanges and other communications with utilities commission member Mike Florio that were conducted without public notice. … Florio was a key player in several regulatory proceedings that grew out of the San Bruno [natural gas explosion]. … Florio also oversaw the process that determined how much PG&E customers would have to pay to bolster pipeline safety following the disaster. In December 2012, the commission voted to have customers cover more than half the $2.2 billion in pipeline safety upgrades. Read More ›
Judge: Regulator Should Release Brown E-Mails On Nuclear Shutdown
by Jaxon Van Derbeken, San Francisco Chronicle
The 65 e-mails that [Gov. Jerry Brown and CPUC officials] either sent or received date from 2013 and 2014. “It appears from the record that CPUC and officials from the governor’s office, including the governor himself, were involved in the discussions at the CPUC regarding the San Onofre” [nuclear plant shutdown, attorney Maria Severson told San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith]. “The interest of public disclosure as to who and what was behind the decision to make utility customers pay over $3.3 billion for the errors of Edison is of vital importance.” Read More ›
PG&E Could Face Steep Fines For Banned Exchanges With Regulators
by Rebecca Bowe, KQED
[One case concerned a CPUC] decision to award millions to PG&E as a reward for satisfying energy-efficiency goals, even though consumer advocates argued that the company hadn’t successfully hit the targets. … PG&E started to face major public scrutiny for its cozy ties to utility regulators after a trove of emails were released in court proceedings initiated by the city of San Bruno in the wake of the deadly 2010 pipeline explosion. … “We’ve said again and again that the rules are much too lax,” [said Mindy Spatt, a spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network (TURN)]. “We and our allies will be pushing for the maximum penalty.” Read More ›
One Dead And Three Injured In PG&E Natural Gas Line Explosion Southwest Of Bakersfield
by Steven Mayer, J.W. Burch IV, James Burger and John Cox, The Bakersfield Californian
“Unfortunately the vehicle and house (near the blast) were all but gone and a hay barn also was burning,” [an eyewitness] said in a text. “I don’t see how anyone still in the house could’ve survived once the flames got there.” The push of gas and flames threw trees into the air, she said. … [PG&E] said automatic valves initiated a shutoff, but that assertion was contradicted by local fire officials. Read More ›
One Dead And Three Injured In PG&E Natural Gas Line Explosion Southwest Of Bakersfield
by Steven Mayer, J.W. Burch IV, James Burger and John Cox, The Bakersfield Californian
“I don’t see how anyone still in the house could’ve survived once the flames got there,” said an eyewitness. The push of gas and flames threw trees into the air, she said. PG&E said automatic valves initiated a shutoff, but that assertion was contradicted by local fire officials. Read More ›
PG&E’s Profit Culture Is Key Element In San Bruno Explosion Trial
by George Avalos, San Jose Mercury News
PG&E faces a fine of up to $1.13 billion if convicted on the federal criminal charges. The case includes 27 allegations that PG&E violated pipeline safety regulations and one charge that it obstructed a follow-up investigation into the explosion. … The state Public Utilities Commission in April levied a record-setting penalty of $1.6 billion against PG&E for causing the explosion. … Federal investigators believe a combination of PG&E’s shoddy maintenance and flawed record keeping, nurtured by lazy oversight by the state PUC, were the three primary factors that led to the explosion. Read More ›
CPUC Reform Veto Vexes Brown Backers
by Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune
Richard Holober, executive director of the Consumer Federation of California, has praised Brown in the past for action on privacy, food safety, credit reports and residential care facilities for the elderly. Holober is not happy with the vetoes of CPUC bills. “Until we saw the vetoes, we were keeping our fingers crossed that he would make the Governor’s Office part of the solution,” Holober said. “Now we are really scratching our heads. The loss of public trust, the scandalous collusion is troubling.” Read More ›
Utilities Spend Lots Of Public’s Money To Influence State Politics
by Teri Sforza, The Orange County Register
“Your No. 1 example, PG&E, is textbook!” [said Chapman University political science professor Mark Chapin Johnson.] “They answer to the state through the PUC, not their shareholders. … Whenever PG&E wishes to contribute vast sums of ratepayers’ monthly payments to the political process, all PG&E needs do is gain permission to raise rates with the PUC to cover such contributions. Public shareholders or ratepayers have no say in the process. Is this a great system or what? Talk about incestuous!” Read More ›