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 agreed to step aside from voting on whether to uphold a proposed $1.4 billion penalty against the company for the deadly disaster. Peevey asked his chief of staff, Carol Brown, to resign.

The revelations and shakeup followed a lawsuit by San Bruno officials seeking communications between the utility and the commission. After receiving a batch of 7,000 e-mails in July, the city asked Peevey to recuse himself from the penalty case, saying the e-mails showed an overly cozy relationship between the company and the state agency that regulates it.

As a result of its investigation, PG&E said three top executives in its regulatory division – Cherry, his boss, Tom Bottorff, and an underling, Trina Horner – had been fired for violating commission rules regarding communications with regulators. Both Bottorff, the company’s vice president over regulatory affairs, and Cherry played key roles in the company’s defense in the San Bruno case and in the proceedings over how much the utility should be made to pay for safety improvements after the blast.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Shakeup-at-PG-amp-E-state-agency-over-5757375.php

Legislators, lobbyists and Capitol staffers who deal with energy policy are buzzing about whether Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey will get a record third term. Peevey, 76, is a former president of Southern California Edison Co. He was first named to the commission in December 2002 by then-Gov. Gray Davis. The appointment came as the state was confronting the ill effects of a failed electricity deregulation law and power blackouts. The crisis helped drive Davis from office in a recall.

Since then, Peevey has become one of California’s most powerful and controversial figures, wielding great influence over energy, telecommunications and transportation issues that affect the pocketbooks and safety of tens of millions of people. He operates from PUC headquarters in San Francisco, largely unknown to the public he serves. The job pays up to $136,144 a year.

Supporters call him a politically savvy, hands-on leader who’s promoted wind and solar power, energy efficiency and the fight against climate change. They also praise him for working to lessen the “digital divide” between upper- and lower-income communities and embracing new technology, such as voice-over-Internet phones and ride-sharing.

Critics, both in and out of government, lambaste Peevey, saying he’s too close to utilities, including Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Edison. They also say he ignored safety concerns before a fatal gas transmission line explosion in 2010 that leveled a neighborhood in the Bay Area city of San Bruno. And they say he dominates his four PUC colleagues.

Gov. Jerry Brown isn’t saying whether he’ll renominate Peevey. The governor recently told the San Jose Mercury News that Peevey is “a strong force…. I know there’s been a lot of ink poured out on this topic, but I would say he gets things done.”

Power industry and consumer groups are split.

“My speculation is he will be reappointed,” said Jan Smutny-Jones, executive director of the Independent Energy Producers Assn. “My sense is that the governor respects his views and listens to him.”

Mark Toney, executive director of the Utility Reform Network, which advocates for ratepayers before the PUC, thinks differently. “He has been involved in so much controversy,” he said. “I’d be surprised if he got reappointed.”

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-capitol-business-beat-20140915-story.html?track=rss