Free Republic

The notion that the Southern California Gas Company is seeking to raise rates by 13% borders on gross malfeasance and criminal conspiracy. Yet most of my ire is not directed at SoCalGas but rather toward government institutions like the inept California Public Utilities Commission, the vacuous California governor and much of the Byzantine California State Legislature. Yes … we can all indeed thank the political swamp that is Sacramento for our ever increasing natural gas, energy and fuel prices. Ever the political demagogue, Gov. Gavin Newsom is demanding a federal investigation into high natural gas prices. The “pretty boy” Left...

... PG&E’s collapse has exposed the California Public Utilities Commission’s failure to hold the utility accountable on safety. The CPUC for years focused attention elsewhere, on setting rates and pushing for cleaner power. Now, the agency tasked with regulating utility safety is struggling to refocus on the issue while also grappling with its failure to prevent the state’s second electricity crisis in two decades. “The PUC is reactive,” says Janice Grau, a retired administrative law judge for the commission. Of the weather patterns that led to deadly power-line failures and blackouts, she says: “There wasn’t anyone at the PUC who...

Democrats are turning California into a third-world hellhole without electricity, water, and freedom. Due to Democrats' love for trees, at least 800,000 Californians will be without power for several days. Instead of properly managing California forests to reduce the chances of big fires, Democrats are saying Californians have to go without lights, refrigerators, and air-conditioning. Democrats could also avoid this by not making the power company financially liable for all forest fire damages, but since PG&E is a company, not an illegal alien, the Democrats couldn't care less about doing what's best for California. While they try to blame climate...

Capping a wild day on Wall Street in which Pacific Gas and Electric Co. stock crashed and soared as investors weighed the prospect of government aid, California’s top utility regulator said Thursday his agency can help the utility avoid financial catastrophe because of the state’s raging wildfires. Michael Picker, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, said his agency does not want PG&E and the state’s other investor-owned utilities to file for bankruptcy. In a move he conceded was unusual, he briefed investors and analysts on his views before issuing a public statement Thursday, a decision that may have contributed...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — The California Public Utilities Commission Friday released roughly 65,000 email messages exchanged between PG&E Co. and agency officials between 2010 and 2014 as ordered because of a “judge shopping” scandal with PG&E, CPUC officials said.

In California, the unemployment rate may be above 10.2%, and the state debt may be above $16 billion, the state’s GDP may be in serious trouble and businesses may be leaving in droves due to ever-increasing tax rates, but that isn’t going to stop the gravy train for the state’s poor and dispossessed. The California Public Utilities Commission is all set to greenlight a new program that would give homeless and low-income people free cell phones – call them Obamaphones – with free service. The idea is to help them reach out to possible job opportunities and stay connected with...

California officials need to add up the costs of all the state's clean-energy policies before adopting any more, according to a report issued Monday by a government oversight agency. The state has adopted a series of far-reaching energy reforms - boosting the use of renewable power and reining in greenhouse gases - without considering how each policy affects the others, the Little Hoover Commission argues in the report. Even worse, state officials have no clear idea how much all of those reforms, taken together, will cost. Californians could soon face a "rate impact bomb" of exploding electricity prices as a...

CPUC TO VOTE WED. ON FLAWED SMART METER OPT-OUT POLICY Critics say Extortionate Fees are Illegal; Entire Program Should be Scrapped San Francisco -- The California Public Utilities Commission—whose members are appointed by the Governor, not elected by the people—is set to vote on a plan this Wednesday to charge Californians hundreds of dollars per year simply to retain standard electric and gas analog meters on their homes.

San Francisco residents may soon have a chance to power their homes and businesses with "100 percent" certified green energy. But it won't come cheap. Under the CleanPowerSF program adopted Tuesday by the city's Public Utilities Commission on a 4-0 vote, San Francisco's 330,000 utility customers would be able to get all their power from wind, solar and other renewable sources, starting as early as July 1. On the downside, typical residential customers would also see their bills rise - at least in the short run - by anywhere from $7 to $54.50 a month, depending on their usage. That's...

The sun shines on the beachfront mansions of Malibu and La Jolla, just as it does on Compton and Barrio Logan in San Diego. ... But based on how California policymakers dole out valuable subsidies for solar panels placed on the residential roofs, the poorest parts of our sunny state might as well be on the dark side of the moon. California is in the midst of by far the nation's most ambitious program to convert to solar energy, one that began in 2006 when then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared that during the next decade, the state would place solar...

Since 2002, California's utilities have committed to spend about $6 billion more on renewable power contracts than they would have paid to buy the electricity from new power plants burning natural gas, .. The report, from a division of the California Public Utilities Commission, examines the costs of a state law that required the utilities to get 20 percent of their power from renewable sources such as the sun and the wind by the end of 2010. Since the law was passed, 59 percent of the contracts the utilities have signed with renewable power developers have been more expensive than...

The California Public Utilities Commission is running a bit short on cash, so it has blessed the creation of a foundation to solicit money from the very companies it is supposed to be keeping an eye on. The idea behind the CPUC Foundation is to have a pool of money to reward deserving staffers, host foreign guests and generally brush up the commission's image - in other words, to pay for activities not covered by agency coffers. Organizers plan to kick off the fundraising with a big dinner Thursday night coinciding with the commission's 100th anniversary. Companies buying $20,000 tables...

State regulators in 2007 gave Pacific Gas and Electric Co. the go-ahead to spend $5 million of ratepayer money to replace a 62-year-old section of the same pipeline that exploded last week in San Bruno. But the work never got done as scheduled in 2009, and this year the utility asked for another $5 million to do the same job by 2013, according to documents submitted by PG&E to the California Public Utility Commission as part of a general rate-hike request. While the cause of the pipeline explosion has yet to be determined, experts say that in general older lines...

Even as Californians head to the polls to decide Tuesday whether cities will need two-thirds voter approval to get into the public power business, San Francisco's Public Utilities Commission is scrambling to unveil its own green energy proposal. Commission staffers are trying to work out a deal by Tuesday with Power Choice LLC, the consortium the PUC selected to deliver green power. Even if they succeed, one thing is becoming clear, those close to the talks tell us - customers will be paying considerably more than what they fork over now to PG&E. The Board of Supervisors has threatened to...

In April, when Public Utilities Commission Chairman Michael Peevey persuaded the PUC board to back his plan to use $600 million generated by a 10-year surcharge on some energy bills to create a PUC-run global warming think tank, the response was far chillier than he probably expected. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was enthusiastic, but he was practically alone. Experts on utility law questioned whether it would be legal for an agency created to regulate utilities to force ratepayers to subsidize an agency think tank. Consumer groups such as The Utilities Reform Network questioned the fairness of imposing an additional de facto...

A publicly funded, world-class research institute that would develop answers to the threat posed by climate-changing greenhouse gases is being crafted in the Legislature, and is among the last-minute proposals expected to come before the Legislature in the closing days of this year's legislative session. The plan differs sharply from the original blueprint proposed by California's top utilities regulator, state Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey. Legislation encompassing the new, estimated $87 million-a-year plan is likely to be completed within a few days. At time when public attention is focused on California's $15.2 billion budget shortage, the proposed California Institute...

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his veto power to eliminate the obscure Electricity Oversight Board, he put at risk $3 billion in state funds – money due the state from settlements with power merchants who victimized California during the electricity crisis. The governor’s 2007 action removing the EOB also means oversight over the state’s electricity grid is likely to be placed under the control of the PUC, which would entail a significant expansion of the authority of the Public Utilities Commission. This maneuvering comes amid an intensifying power clash between the Legislature and the Public Utilities Commission, led by president...

Are you willing to pay 12 to 30 cents more a month on your utility bill for an institute coordinating energy and climate change technology research across the state? Actually, you don't have a choice. The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday unanimously approved the $600 million California Institute for Climate Solutions, which will be paid for by money from ratepayers' monthly electric bills, to the tune of $60 million a year. The institute aims to speed up research into cutting greenhouse gas emissions, such as auto exhaust, that contribute to pollution. This work is already under way at laboratories...

California will establish a high-profile, $600 million research center to devise solutions for global warming, the Public Utilities Commission decided in a 5-0 vote Thursday. The California Institute for Climate Solutions will have a $60 million budget each year for 10 years. The money will come from ratepayers of the state's major utilities, including Pacific Gas & Electric, which serves much of Northern California. The new institute, which will seek matching funds to expand its reach, will administer research grants; work to transfer technologies to commercial businesses; and develop a related workforce for these companies. Undecided is where the new...

California's CPUC - C(K)eep Public Uninformed Commission Imagine if newspaper headlines told the truth instead of serving to cover the actions of government. Consider the recent Associated Press headline and story "State Regulators Vote to Ban Utilities from Buying Dirty Power" (see here: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/26/america/NA-GEN-US-Dirty-Power.php). What if this headline ran instead something like this: "STATE REGULATORS BLOCKAGE CHEAP IMPORTED POWER - VIOLATE INTERSTATE COMMERCE CLAUSE." First of all, not all energy from coal-fired power plants is dirty. A small percentage of coal-fired power plants, including the Intermountain Power Plant which serves Los Angeles, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Anaheim, and Riverside are unusually...