Politics, Government & Business in California's Inland Empire
Rob Nikolewski
December 14, 2016
In a ruling made just before the close of business hours Tuesday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) directed Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric to meet with groups critical of a 2014 agreement that calls on utility ratepayers to shoulder about 70 percent of the costs from shutting down the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
Jeff McDonald
November 30, 2016
The judge who until a few weeks ago was in charge of the long-running San Onofre case before the California Public Utilities Commission has taken a job with a contractor to plant owner Southern California Edison.
Jeff McDonald
November 28, 2016
The California Supreme Court has declined to take up a lawsuit seeking release of dozens of emails to and from the Governor’s Office regarding the San Onofre nuclear plant failure.
Jeff McDonald
September 29, 2016
Gov. Jerry Brown signed five bills Thursday aimed at reform for the California Public Utilities Commission and called on the agency to take additional steps to impose changes of its own.
Jeff McDonald
September 24, 2016 – 05:00 p.m.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission will investigate donations made to the California Democratic Party by privately owned utilities and other energy interests.
Jeff McDonald
September 22, 2016
State utility regulators, already under criminal investigation for their ties to monopolies they oversee, should ban gifts and travel from energy companies and trade groups to avoid the appearance of improper relationships, a state audit released Thursday said.
By Jeff McDonald
Sept. 10, 2016 | Updated – 12:15 p.m.
When key bills aimed at reforming the California Public Utilities Commission died last month, much of the blame was placed publicly at the feet of a Republican floor leader — someone not typically seen as a make-or-break figure in a Democrat-dominated legislature.
By Jeff McDonald |
Sept. 8, 2016 – 5 p.m. |
Sept. 9, 2016 – Updated 7:37 a.m.
Congresswoman and U.S. Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez called Thursday for a federal takeover of the criminal investigation into the California Public Utilities Commission from her political rival, Attorney General Kamala Harris.
Liam Dillon
August 1, 2016
A major effort to overhaul the state’s energy regulator surprisingly collapsed after late legislative maneuverings led to the unraveling of the broad coalition that had pushed for changes at the scandal-ridden agency.
Liam Dillon
August 28, 2016
For years, state lawmakers have been trying to crack down on private meetings between utility companies and members of the California Public Utilities Commission after revelations that top officials and industry executives had frequent dinner dates, shared talking points and even sketched out details of the multibillion-dollar closure of a Southern California nuclear power plant during a secret rendezvous in a luxury hotel in Poland.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
July 26, 2016 – 6:54 PM
The California Assembly has shown a certain appetite for institutional reform this year – noteworthy because it happens so rarely in the Capitol.
Ivan Penn
July 7, 2016
Southern California Edison on Thursday warned that its customers could face higher costs related to the shuttered San Onofre nuclear plant if regulators overturn a settlement agreement.
Jeff McDonald
June 29, 2016
Major reforms may be coming to the California Public Utilities Commission, but the agency still has plenty of room for improvement, auditors said Wednesday.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
June 28, 2016 – 5:59 PM
Lawyers love to sprinkle their discourse with Latin phrases, thereby giving them a veneer of erudition.
Capitol Alert
By Jeremy B. White
jwhite@sacbee.com
June 27, 2016 – 11:19 AM
A deal between Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers announced Monday will bring major changes to the oft-criticized California Public Utilities Commission, including removing the regulator’s enforcement authority over ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft.
By Jeff McDonald | May 25, 2016 – 9 p.m.
Even as it was preparing to review a $4.7 billion deal settling costs for the failed San Onofre nuclear plant, the California Public Utilities Commission was working behind the scenes to draft and send subpoenas on behalf of plant owner Southern California Edison.
By Rob Nikolewski |
May 17, 2016 – 2:35 p.m.
It’s not a ratings downgrade, but Moody’s Investor Service on Tuesday called reopening the financial details of the San Onofre nuclear plant shutdown a “credit negative” for the plant’s operator, Southern California Edison.
By Jeff McDonald |
May 14, 2016 – 8 a.m.
Eighteen months ago, when the Attorney General’s Office served a search warrant on the California Public Utilities Commission headquarters in San Francisco, agents carted away computers, files and other materials by the armful.
It was more than a raid. It was a dramatic message to utility regulators: Attorney General Kamala Harris was serious about investigating government corruption.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
May 10, 2016 – 3:33 PM
The long-simmering scandal in the state Public Utilities Commission over a secret deal to stick ratepayers with most of the costs of shutting down the San Onofre nuclear power plant just got more interesting.
By Amita Sharma
Friday, April 29, 2016
Aired 4/29/16 on KPBS News.
While California Attorney General Kamala Harris gathers steam in her campaign to replace U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, the statute of limitations has run out for her to file charges for a secret meeting in Poland that spawned a San Onofre settlement.
By Amita Sharma
Friday, April 15, 2016
How does a prosecutor build a case if she’s representing a potential witness in her investigation?
By Amita Sharma
Evening Edition
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
When criminal investigators with the California Attorney General’s Office searched the home of a former top utility regulator early last year, they uncovered evidence that upended a story state officials and a major electric utility had been telling consumers about the deal to pay for the shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
By Jeff McDonald & Patrick McGreevy |
March 11, 2016 – 6 p.m.
A consumer advocacy group filed a complaint Friday with the state ethics agency seeking an investigation into whether the top aide to Gov. Jerry Brown influenced appointments to the state Public Utilities Commission while she owned stock in PG&E, an allegation rejected immediately by the Governor’s Office.
Capitol Alert
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
March 9, 2016 – 10:44 AM
Appellate Justice J. Anthony Kline, one of Gov. Jerry Brown’s oldest friends, has quietly stepped away from handling a case involving Brown’s communications with the Public Utilities Commission.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
February 23, 2016 – 4:07 PM
A legal flap over Gov. Jerry Brown’s communications with the Public Utilities Commission is escalating – and now involves one of Brown’s oldest friends.
By David R. Baker
January 28, 2016
Updated: January 28, 2016 – 3:44pm
The solar industry scored a major victory Thursday when a divided California Public Utilities Commission voted to keep largely intact the system that compensates solar homeowners for excess electricity that they place on the grid.
By Dan Walters
dwalters@sacbee.com
January 26, 2016 5:09 PM
Jerry Brown distances himself from embarrassing situations in the state government he ostensibly commands, never adopting Harry Truman’s “the buck stops here” attitude.
By Jeff McDonald
Jan. 25, 2016 | Updated – 5:05 p.m.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge on Monday rejected the California Public Utilities Commission’s request to dismiss a lawsuit aimed at forcing regulators to release dozens of emails to and from Gov. Jerry Brown’s office regarding the San Onofre nuclear plant failure.
By Jeff McDonald |
Jan. 5, 2016 – 5:38 p.m.
The judge who has overseen the matter of the San Onofre nuclear plant failure for the California Public Utilities Commission has stepped down amid the ongoing criminal investigation at the agency.
By Jeff McDonald and Ricky Young |
Dec. 29, 2015 – 5:00 p.m.
A state criminal investigation into the California Public Utilities Commission centers around former President Michael Peevey’s persistent intervention into the process to assign costs for the failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant, newly released court documents show.
Ivan Penn
December 15, 2015
Rooftop solar panel owners could face new fees under a proposal issued Tuesday, but state regulators rejected several recommendations by utility companies that threatened the expansion of residential and commercial solar efforts.
By Jeff McDonald | 7 a.m. Dec. 7, 2015 | Updated, noon
A new batch of emails released by the City of San Bruno last week show Gov. Jerry Brown supervising his appointees on the California Public Utilities Commission closely.
By Jeff McDonald | Oct. 21, 2015 – 8:22 p.m.
As criticism mounted last year of a settlement deal that billed utility customers for 70 percent of the $4.7 billion cost of failure at the San Onofre nuclear plant, the state judge assigned to the case reached out to plant owner Southern California Edison.
By Jeff McDonald | Oct. 2, 2015 – 6:07 p.m.
State elections regulators have cleared the California Public Utilities Commission president of any wrongdoing related to a February gala dinner honoring his predecessor.
By Ivan Penn
September 26, 2015
Tired of growing electricity bills, Miguel Espinoza decided to turn to the sun, rather than the grid, for power.
By Jeff McDonald |
Sept. 11, 2015 – 6:01 p.m.
Four bills aimed at reforming the California Public Utilities Commission passed the state Legislature on Friday and are headed to the Governor’s Office for consideration.
By Ivan Penn
September 10, 2015
Southern California Edison asked state regulators Thursday to reject calls to reopen the settlement agreement over the closed San Onofre nuclear power plant.
By David R. Baker
September 1, 2015
Updated: September 1, 2015 5:17pm
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Tuesday asked state regulators for permission to collect an extra $2.7 billion from its customers over the course of three years, using the money for technology upgrades and improved disaster response.
By Teri Sforza / Staff Columnist
Updated Aug. 21, 2015 7:18 a.m.
Southern California Edison did its very best to figure out which chitchats between its executives and state regulators were “substantive” enough to require disclosure to the rest of the world, it argued in a legal filing Thursday. But those rules are murky, people’s recollections change, and Edison has beefed up tracking company communications with state regulators as a result, to better sort the wheat from the chaff.
By Jeff McDonald | Noon Aug. 15, 2015
When Southern California Edison replaced the steam generators at the San Onofre nuclear plant, state regulators allowed the utility to start billing customers for the upgrade without the benefit of what’s called a “reasonableness review.”
By Jeff McDonald
Aug. 10, 2015 – Updated – 5:07 p.m.
Another consumer group that negotiated the $4.7 billion settlement of San Onofre shutdown costs backed away from the agreement Monday, withdrawing support from the deal that charges customers 70 percent of the tab for the nuclear plant’s failure.
August 8, 2015
Why don’t our elected officials or the media care?
The shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generation plant permanently eliminated over 2000 Megawatts of electrical power from California’s electricity supplies. This is approximately 20 percent of Southern California’s total electrical energy supply.
By Jeff McDonald | Aug. 6, 2015 – 5:37 p.m.
The third man in the room for a secret meeting in Poland two years ago says in a sworn declaration that the Southern California Edison executive at the hotel actively participated in the undisclosed talks about the failed San Onofre nuclear plant failure.
By Jeff McDonald | Aug. 5, 2015 – 6:36 p.m.
Southern California Edison on Wednesday was found to have violated rules prohibiting backchannel communications at least 10 times in its dealings with regulators over the failed San Onofre nuclear plant.
By Jeff McDonald | July 27, 2015 – 5:09 p.m.
State regulators do not appear ready to comply with a July 31 deadline to release thousands of emails requested by the chairman of the Assembly committee overseeing the California Public Utilities Commission.
By Jeff McDonald | July 17, 2015
The chairman of the Assembly committee that oversees the California Public Utilities Commission has given the agency until the end of this month to secure and turn over certain emails and other documents from Southern California Edison.
By Laura J. Nelson, Andrea Chang and Paresh Dave
July 15, 2015
Uber — plagued by problems with regulators, drivers and taxi unions around the world — took a big blow in its home state Wednesday when an administrative judge recommended that the ride-sharing giant be fined $7.3 million and be suspended from operating in California.
By Morgan Lee | 6:13 p.m. July 9, 2015
A federal lawsuit filed this week accuses two top Edison International executives of harming shareholders by failing to disclose secret meetings with California regulators regarding a $4.7 billion settlement of costs for the failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant.
By Jeff McDonald | July 6, 2015 – 06:00 a.m.
The criminal investigation of the California Public Utilities Commission appears to be intensifying, with state agents serving a fresh round of search warrants at the regulators’ headquarters in San Francisco and at Southern California Edison offices outside Los Angeles.
Business & Real Estate
By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com
July 3, 2015
Regulators overhauled the state’s system for pricing electricity for millions of Californians on Friday in a move that they said will simplify the structure and bring rates closer in line with costs. Many customers who use the least amount of energy will probably see rate increases, but regulators said the system will be more fair.
By Jeff McDonald
June 29, 2015 – 4:54 p.m.
The judge in charge of the San Onofre matter pending before the state Public Utilities Commission is seeking more details from Southern California Edison about its participation in a secret meeting in Poland regarding shutdown costs for the failed nuclear plant.
By Jeff McDonald
June 26, 2015 – 4:58 p.m.
Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric have petitioned state regulators to reject the suggestion that the $4.7 billion settlement deal for the failed San Onofre nuclear plant be reopened.
By Jeff McDonald
June 26, 2015 – Updated: 5:16 p.m.
The regulator overseeing an investigation into the failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant met privately with then-California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey days after Peevey returned from a secret meeting about the matter in Poland.
By Jeff McDonald
June 24, 2015
The San Francisco consumer group that helped broker the $4.7-billion deal dividing costs for the shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear plant said Wednesday that it no longer supports the agreement and called on regulators to reopen talks.
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
Monday, June 22, 2015 – Updated 7:19 pm
The ability of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and other utilities to engage in back-channel talks with top California Public Utilities Commission officials unfairly skews decisions in favor of big-money interests, and the practice should be banned in rate cases, a review requested by the state agency concluded Monday.
By Jeff McDonald
June 12, 2015 – 7:17 p.m.
Tens of thousands of dollars in proceeds from a February tribute dinner for former utility regulator Michael Peevey was turned away by the University of California after Peevey fell under the shadow of criminal investigation.
By Jeff McDonald
May 29, 2015 – 7:23 p.m.
The judge in charge of deciding whether to reopen the San Onofre settlement — and whether Southern California Edison should be sanctioned for failing to disclose private communications with regulators who approved it — was herself involved in backchannel dealings with an Edison executive.
By Kevin Smith, San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Posted: 05/27/15 – 8:52 PM PDT |
Residents in Southern California’s hotter regions would get some relief from the overly high electric rates they’ve been paying under a proposed decision that’s being considered by state regulators, but an alternative proposal would keep rates high.
Warsaw was not the only undisclosed gathering while nuclear plant shutdown pact took shape
By Morgan Lee
May 23, 2015 – 03:48 p.m.
The public was none the wiser.
All the key parties in the room for the only public hearing on the $4.7 billion settlement agreement for shutdown costs at the failed San Onofre nuclear plant knew that the pact had its origins at a secret meeting in Poland.
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
May 21, 2015
Updated: May 21, 2015 – 8:11pm
Investigators are looking into whether former PUC President Michael Peevey made deals with PG&E illegally.
By Jeff McDonald
May 12, 2015
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.
By Morgan Lee
May 2, 2015 – 6:53 a.m.
Among the documents released this past week regarding closure of the San Onofre nuclear plant was an email showing executives with majority owner Southern California Edison cooperating with traditional adversaries with an eye toward “getting our money back.”
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
May 2, 2015
Updated: May 2, 2015 – 11:39pm
A California Public Utilities Commission member who was present when the agency’s president pressured Southern California utilities to funnel $25 million to a pet cause last year played a pivotal role in keeping the lobbying secret, according to the account of a top utility executive.
Dan Morain
Editorial page editor, political affairs columnist and editorial writer
dmorain@sacbee.com
May 2, 2015
Michael Peevey is no Ron Calderon.
Peevey never would think to take $3,000 in cash to cover some kid’s tuition payment, as the feds say former state Sen. Calderon did. Nor would he ask a supposed studio executive, who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent, to hire a relative.
By Jim Peltz
April 30, 2015
Southern California Edison Co. denied that a private meeting between one of its past executives and the state’s former top utilities regulator influenced the company’s nearly $5-billion settlement of costs covering the closed San Onofre nuclear power plant.
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
April 29, 2015
The former head of the California Public Utilities Commission pressured two Southern California utilities last year to make donations to a school at UCLA where he then landed a post on an advisory board, documents revealed Wednesday show.
By Amita Sharma
Apr 29, 2015
Sorrentino’s Pizza owner Patrick Quinn is tired of watching the energy bill at his San Diego restaurant go up each month.
By Jeff McDonald
April 29, 2015 – 6:50 p.m.
Southern California Edison responded Wednesday to an order from state utility regulators that the company hand over all of its communications about settling the costs of the premature shutdown of the San Onofre nuclear power plant.
By Marc Lifsher
April 18, 2015
Consumer advocates, outraged by a secret negotiation in Poland over the $5-billion cost of closing the San Onofre nuclear power plant, are asking the California Public Utilities Commission to reconsider a deal that sticks utility customers with the bulk of the bill.
By Jeff McDonald
April 15, 2015 – 5:11 p.m.
The settlement that assigned billions of dollars in San Onofre nuclear plant closure costs to customers should be revisited after revelations about how the deal came together, the chairman of the state Senate committee overseeing utilities said.
By Jeff McDonald
April 14, 2015 – 5:35 p.m.
The California Public Utilities Commission on Tuesday ordered Southern California Edison to turn over all documents related to the potential settlement of the San Onofre closure dated between March 2013 and November 2014.
Framework was set in Poland, before public process began
By Jeff McDonald
April 10, 2015 – Updated 9:00 p.m.
Notes of a March 2013 secret meeting at a luxury hotel in Warsaw show that a $4.7 billion deal to divide shutdown costs for the failed San Onofre nuclear plant was largely in place a year before any provisions were made known to the public.
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
Thursday, April 9, 2015 – Updated 9:14 pm
Minutes after the California Public Utilities Commission levied a record $1.6 billion penalty against Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on Thursday for the deadly San Bruno pipeline explosion, the state’s top regulator said the utility is still plagued by gas-system problems, shrugs off even the harshest sanctions and may be too big to operate safely.
San Diego group contested ratepayer costs for shutdown
By Jeff McDonald
April 8, 2015 – 1:24 p.m.
A federal judge wants to hear in person why the decision to charge customers billions of dollars for the failed San Onofre nuclear power plant is a fair deal for ratepayers.
Same nonprofit group funded Poland trip that affected San Onofre deal
By Jeff McDonald
April 6, 2015 – 5:27 p.m.
The group that funded the 2013 trip to Poland where former utilities regulator Michael Peevey sketched out plans to charge customers most of the costs of the failed San Onofre nuclear power plant also paid last week for the chairman of the Assembly utilities committee to travel to Singapore.
By Marc Lifsher
April 3, 3025
The president of the scandal-rocked Public Utilities Commission has rejected a call from a powerful lawmaker to reopen a financial settlement that apportioned nearly $5 billion in costs for the June 2013 permanent closure of the damaged San Onofre nuclear power plant.
Capitol Alert
The go-to source for news on California policy and politics
By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
03/30/2015 12:05 AM
Michael Peevey’s announcement last fall that he would not seek reappointment to the California Public Utilities Commission appeared to offer closure to years of controversy surrounding his tenure.
By Jeff McDonald
March 26, 2015 – 6:26 p.m.
The California Public Utilities Commission has arranged to spend as much as $5.2 million on criminal-defense lawyers to respond to ongoing state and federal investigations.
By Jeff McDonald
March 25, 2015 – 7:54 p.m.
California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker has had regular backchannel communications with a consultant and political insider who has a West Los Angeles power deal pending before the commission.
By Jeff McDonald
March 2, 2015 – 4:46 p.m.
The state utility regulator who recused himself from future Pacific Gas & Electric business after his behind-the-scenes emails were released publicly has taken part in similar backchannel discussions with Southern California Edison, newly obtained records show.
By Marc Lifsher
February 27, 2015
In the months after the deadly 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, California regulators scrambled to order Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to improve the safety of its aging infrastructure.
By Jeff McDonald
Feb. 19, 2015 – 4:56 p.m.
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.
By Jaxon Van Derbeken
Monday, February 16, 2015 – Updated 9:07 am
A Pacific Gas and Electric Co. executive exploited former state Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey’s intense interest in a Kern County alternative-energy project in making a backroom deal to win favorable treatment for the company, newly released e-mails show.
By Jeff McDonald
Feb. 14, 2015 – Updated 4:18 p.m.
Ten years ago, when Southern California Edison wanted to replace the steam generators in its San Onofre nuclear power plant, the state Public Utilities Commission agreed to the plan without a formal review of the $680 million price tag.
By David Siders
dsiders@sacbee.com
02/10/2015 3:14 PM
Amid the ongoing drip of revelations into back channel communications between Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and the California Public Utilities Commission, Brown administration officials and other political heavyweights are sponsoring a tribute dinner for Michael Peevey, the embattled former president of the PUC.