A former high ranking member of the California Public Utilities Commission spoke out for the first time since retiring from the agency last fall. In an exclusive interview with the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit, he called the actions of some of the CPUC’s former leaders “disgusting.” For more than a decade Richard Clark held one of the agency’s most critical positions as Director of Consumer Protection in the Safety Division. He said his decisions to draw an ethical line with Pacific Gas & Electric Company contradicted a culture of improper access and influence. Read More ›

The latest grand jury investigation was opened after last year’s disclosure of e-mails between PG&E and the state utilities commission, which prompted probes by both state and federal prosecutors. Some of the e-mails showed a PG&E executive lobbying commissioners and their staffs for a preferred judge to oversee a $1.3 billion rate case. Others indicated that PG&E thought then-commission President Michael Peevey was dangling favorable state treatment in exchange for the utility’s backing for his pet fundraising and political causes. Read More ›

In levying the $1.6 billion penalty for the San Bruno explosion, commissioners cited PG&E’s shoddy records, reckless practices and numerous safety violations leading up to the disaster. The 30-inch pipeline exploded when an incomplete seam weld that PG&E didn’t even know existed ruptured. Company records showed that the 1950s-era pipe had no seams, so PG&E never conducted the type of inspection that could have caught a flawed weld. Regulators found that PG&E had cut pipeline-safety spending during years when it was making record profits … Read More ›

Money collected from ratepayers and earmarked for pipeline safety was instead spent on executive pay raises by the state’s largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., in the months before a deadly pipeline explosion in 2010, lawmakers were told Wednesday. … After the two-hour hearing, [new Public Utilities Commission President] Michael Picker told The Times that he’s gathering additional documentation that PG&E put off safety and maintenance work to boost its profits and provide top executives with bonuses. Read More ›

A consumer group, The Utility Reform Network, praised the proposal from [California Public Utilities Commission President Michael] Picker, but warned that vigilance is still needed to ensure the PUC doesn’t accommodate PG&E unduly in other decisions. Among those pending matters: a plan to finance PG&E improvements to its natural gas transmission and storage system. That proposal could produce an increase in gas bills of 11.8 percent, or $5.23 a month for the average residential customer. Read More ›

[Plaintiffs attorney:] “They are misusing public funds by hiring lawyers — very expensive lawyers — to hide public records that relate to the misuse of ratepayer funds.” … According to [CPUC President Michael] Picker, the commission is facing at least three separate criminal investigations — two by the California Attorney General’s office and one by the U.S. Department of Justice. … Investigators are looking into alleged favoritism by [ex-CPUC President Michael] Peevey and others after a deadly 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno and the 2012 failure of the San Onofre nuclear power plant. Read More ›

“It’s almost as if PG&E was a Rasputin, or a Svengali, with the magic power to get the PUC to do what PG&E wanted,” said state Sen. Jerry Hill, whose San Mateo County district includes San Bruno [where a natural gas blast in September 2010 killed eight people and destroyed a neighborhood]. … The PUC remains under intense scrutiny because skeptics believe Peevey created and then nurtured a culture of cozy relations with San Francisco-based PG&E and other utility giants in California. Read More ›