Cpuc

A group of state lawmakers in the lower house California Assembly on Wednesday unveiled an effort to change the state’s constitution to shut down the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), an institution that has come under increased political and consumer criticism in the past two years.

A severe snowstorm caused the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to cancel a scheduled oil/gas lease sale Tuesday, and the environmental groups’ “Keep It in the Ground” campaign canceled its protest rally at the Cheyenne, WY, event. Since last November, BLM has canceled three sales, the most recent coming last month in Montana (see Daily GPI, Jan 19). Increasingly, activists for the anti-leasing campaign show up to protest the auctions, and BLM officials have been scrambling to find larger places in which to hold the sales. After deferring 35 parcels from the sale, BLM said late last year that there would be 82 parcels totaling 82,118 acres offered. The sale will be rescheduled BLM officials said.

Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) unit reported Monday that it expects to stop the nearly three-month-old natural gas storage well leak at its Aliso Canyon underground facility “by late February, if not sooner.”

California regulators recently approved a new tariff for Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) to enter the distributed generation sector, which is growing in the state.

Calling it a “carbon-polluting power grab,” Earthjustice on Monday filed an appeal challenging the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC) approval of a key agreement to repower an existing natural gas-fired generation plant site in Carlsbad, CA.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday imposed a $16.7 million penalty on Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) for “failure to timely report” alleged ex parte communications and “misleading” the regulatory body, a violation of CPUC rules. The five-member CPUC effectively affirmed an administrative law judge’s (ALJ) proposed penalty for the alleged breach of CPUC ethics rules (see Daily GPI,Oct. 29). The penalty follows a disputed ALJ finding that the utility violated CPUC ex parte communications rules on 10 occasions between March 26, 2013 and June 17, 2014 regarding SCE’s pending case on the closure of its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS). SCE has challenged the charges. In addition to the fine, the CPUC ordered SCE to develop a public website tracking all of its future nonpublic, individual communications related to the SONGS investigation.

Alleging a breach of the ethics rules, a California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) regulatory judge on Monday proposed a $16.7 million penalty for ex parte communications violations against Southern California Edison Co. (SCE).

California regulators on Thursday unanimously agreed to investigate the safety operations and culture at San Francisco-based Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E) following a string of incidents over the last five years.

Edison International’s Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) on Friday disputed a state regulatory judge’s ruling on 10 alleged ex parte violations by the utility, contending that only one of the violations was a reportable communication under current state regulatory rules. No large penalty or sanction should he imposed, SCE argued.