Arnold

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger chose an economist to be the newest regulator on the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC). Nancy Ryan, the regulatory body’s current deputy executive director for policy, gives the CPUC a full complement of regulators a month after the Senate refused to reconfirm Rachelle Chong, a telecommunications attorney and former member of the Federal Communications Commission, to a full six-year term. Ryan, 49, has expertise in energy markets, climate change policy and the public health and ecological impacts of energy production, and she worked for several years in the environmental sector. The appointment requires Senate confirmation within a year’s time. Ryan has been a member of the CPUC management team since January 2006 when she began as CPUC President Michael Peevey’s chief energy adviser and served as his chief of staff from April 2007 to February 2009.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger chose an economist to be newest regulator on the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC). Nancy Ryan, the regulatory body’s current deputy executive director for policy, gives the CPUC a full complement of regulators a month after the Senate refused to reconfirm Rachelle Chong, a telecommunications attorney and former member of the Federal Communications Commission, to a full six-year term.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger chose an economist to be newest regulator on the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC). Nancy Ryan, the regulatory body’s current deputy executive director for policy, gives the CPUC a full complement of regulators a month after the Senate refused to reconfirm Rachelle Chong, a telecommunications attorney and former member of the Federal Communications Commission, to a full six-year term.

Although the energy infrastructure remained intact, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last Tuesday declared a state of emergency for Humboldt County in the wake of the 6.5-magnitude earthquake offshore Eureka, CA, Jan. 9. Schwarzenegger cited damage along the Northern California coast, including utilities and 175 structures.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday moved to fill two upcoming vacancies on the five-member California Energy Commission (CEC), naming a veteran energy policy expert and a scientist with experience at the state air pollution regulatory agency that sites electric generation plants. The appointments of Robert Weisenmiller, 61, and Anthony Eggert, 37, require confirmation by the state Senate.

Although the energy infrastructure remains intact, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday declared a state of emergency for Humboldt County in the wake of the 6.5-magnitude earthquake offshore Eureka, CA, last Saturday. Schwarzenegger cited damage along the Northern California coast, including utilities and 175 structures.

Faced with a widening budget deficit that some analysts place above $20 billion in the new year, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger indicated that he is revisiting a proposal to expand offshore drilling in order to generate more than $200 million of revenues. A proposal to open drilling offshore Santa Barbara County early in 2009 was rejected by the State Lands Commission.

Faced with a widening budget deficit that some analysts place above $20 billion, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is revisiting a proposal to expand offshore drilling in order to generate more than $200 million of revenues. A proposal to open drilling offshore Santa Barbara County earlier this year was rejected by the State Lands Commission (see Daily GPI, Feb. 2).

In one of the lower profile energy measures that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed earlier in October (SB 488), California will mandate that all of its major utilities create pilot programs for sharing energy use information among neighbors as a means of spurring more energy saving behavior by residential customers. There is growing data that the psychology of peer pressure works in getting people to take energy saving steps.