STATE RAIDS HOME OF FORMER CPUC CHAIRMAN MICHAEL PEEVEY

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“I have seen so much evidence of corruption at the CPUC that it is appalling. Judges who appeared sympathetic to the consumer were regularly changed out for those who would do what Peevey wanted, which meant what the utilities wanted” – Susan Brinchman, , La Mesa

By Miriam Raftery

January 30, 2015 (San Francisco) – Investigators from the California Attorney General’s office reportedly raided the home of former Public Utilities Commission Chairman Michael Peevey this week, seizing computers and smart phones.  State law enforcement officials also seized evidence from the home of Pacific Gas & Electric Company executive Brian Cherry, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Activists in San Diego have long complained that Peevey represented the interests of utilities, not ratepayers or the public.

The raids are part of an investigation into allegations of improper communications between Peevey and other PUC officials with PG&E executives.  E-mails obtained through public records have revealed that Peevey and staff sought to help PG&E evade responsibility for the deadly San Bruno gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and leveled an entire neighborhood.

Peevey even offering to control selection of administrative law judges in a rate-setting case. In addition he helped solicit campaign contributions to oppose a ballot measure that utilities objected to and solicited funds from the utility giant to pay for a centennial celebration for the CPUC—the agency that is supposed tod regulate utilities, not pander to their wishes.

Peevey resigned in December. Cherry was fired over the illicit communications.

Mike Aguirre, former San Diego City Attorney, challenged Peevey at a public hearing last year over his cozy ties to Southern California Edison and questioned his impartiality in the San Onofre nuclear power plant controversy.  Peevey, clearly peeved, refused to answer Aguirre’s questions and told him to “shut up” even though Aguirre was representing California ratepayers’ interests at the proceeding.

Now Susan Brinchman at the Center for Electrosmog Prevention, a La Mesa resident who has been battling the CPUC over smart meter proceedings, tells ECM that she believes Peevey unduly influenced decisions on those matters as well.

““I have seen so much evidence of corruption at the CPUC that it is appalling,” Brinchman wrote in an e-mail to ECM.  “Judges who appeared sympathetic to the consumer were regularly changed out for those who would do what Peevey wanted, which meant what the utilities wanted. For instanc,e boldly, in writing, as part of each proceeding, the CPUC refused to cover health and safety within the scope of the proceeding, contrary to CPUC policy and state law.”

This past week, Brinchman’s organization has filed for a rehearing due to that stance for the phase two Smart Meter Opt-Out Proceeding, which recently closed following a decision favorable to the utilities. Peevey’s proposal for the smart meter opt-out was adopted by the Commission on December 19, 2014 just before he resigned.

Moreover, Brinchman notes, “Carol Brown, Michael Peevey’s Chief of Staff, forced to resign in September 2014, is now an administrative law judge at the CPUC—making decisions daily that impact consumer health and safety, after being caught making deals to help PG&E after their neglected, leaky gas lines blew up a neighborhood in San Bruno…The explosion killed 8, one of the CPUC staff who was the #1 whistleblower at the CPUC for gas pipeline leaks and her young-grade daughter, whose house was ground zero for the explosion.”

That staffer, Jacqueline Greig, worked for an independent branch of the commission called the Division of Ratepayer Advocates, which takes the side of utility customers in matters before the commission and provides input to regulators in defense of consumers. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/09/victim-who-died-in-san-pedro-explosion-worked-for-state-agency-that-regulates-pge.html)

Brinchman adds, “The CPUC is a completely corrupted, rogue state agency that is endangering the public, extending far beyond Peevey.  The key staff are frequently recycled utility attorneys or top staff form utility companies and they do whatever the utilities want—it doesn’t seem to matter how dangerous.”

She says that people who traveled to San Francisco to testify to the CPUC that smart meters have made them ill were treated rudely by Peevey.  “People are suffering from large banks of these dangerous pulsed-radiation emitting meters, which multiple the exposure from the single smart meters,” she adds.  “I strongly suspect that Peevey and certain others at the CPUC engineered the phase two Smart Meter Opt-Out Proceeding” to delay and close the proceeding without discussion of health problems, she added. 

She urged the State Attorney General to look into intervenor fees, noting that hefty rewards are typically given to those who support utility positions, while intervenors who oppose utilities’ views tend to be denied compensation or given trifling amounts.

Brinchman concludes, “The CPUC is so riddled with conflicts and corruption that it is truly unrecognizable as a regulatory agency, and routinely can be said to cause physical harm to the people of California, well beyond that which criminals inflict. I call upon the California State Attorney General to investigate Michael Peevey for his conduct in the smart grid and smart meter proceedings in addition to the gas pipeline debacle, for they will very likely find even more evidence of illegal activity there,” the La Mesa activist concludes.

 


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