Michael Picker, appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to become the new president of the California Public Utilities Commission, told KQED he is not concerned about the close ties the agency has had with PG&E. He also said he thinks the large regulatory agency is too focused on the Bay Area. Picker, whose appointment will become
A California Public Utilities Commission official offered to write a favorable opinion on a $1.3 billion gas rate case if Pacific Gas and Electric Co. “did not like” one from another commissioner, according to an e-mail the company was forced to disclose by a judge’s order. The e-mail — from ousted PG&E Vice President Brian Cherry to two colleagues
In the first major test of how California voters would react to hydraulic fracturing on the ballot, two counties in California approved fracking bans on Tuesday. Opponents of fracking are hoping the movement will spread to other counties. But a measure to bar the controversial oil production technique in Santa Barbara County — where the oil
California's pioneering climate-change law has a long reach, but that doesn't mean all its mandates will help stave off global warming. To meet the requirement that it cut carbon emissions, for example, Southern California Edison recently sold its stake in one of the West's largest coal-fired power plants, located hundreds of miles out of state.
When President Ronald Reagan was pushing for offshore oil drilling on the edges of Monterey Bay in the mid-1980s, Santa Cruz voters fought back, approving a ballot measure that banned construction of all storage tanks, pipelines and other oil equipment in the city. The small protest vote was soon copied by 25 other coastal communities,
Lawyers with the state commission that regulates Pacific Gas and Electric Co. say the agency’s bosses didn’t pass along an order from state Attorney General Kamala Harris’ office to safeguard evidence as prosecutors investigate a judge-shopping case involving the utility and top public officials. In a memo addressed to the five members of the Public
For the past decade, the U.S. shale boom has mostly passed by California, forcing oil refiners in the state to import expensive crude. Now that’s changing as energy companies overcome opposition to forge ahead with rail depots that will get oil from North Dakota’s Bakken Shale. Thanks in large measure to hydraulic fracturing, the U.S.
For years, Gov. Jerry Brown defended Michael Peevey, the embattled president of the California Public Utilities Commission. The commission, which regulates California’s massive energy and telecommunications industries, had come under scrutiny for back-channel communications with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. following a gas line explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno in 2010. Brown was unwavering, telling the
A new face showed up early this year on the steps of the California Public Utilities Commission in San Francisco, where officials regulate the state's corporate electric and gas utilities and other services. Handing out orange leaflets was not some angry protester. It was the just-appointed member of the five-person commission, Democrat Michael Picker, 62, of
Three Pacific Gas and Electric Co. executives and a top aide to the head of the California Public Utilities Commission were ousted over "inappropriate" back-channel communications showing that the company lobbied regulators to appoint its preferred judge to a key rate-setting case stemming from the San Bruno explosion. The president of the utilities commission, Michael Peevey, also