Surround

Although its agenda has had few major energy items, the extreme delays that seem to surround many issues before the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) in recent months have caused a new informal alliance of old and new members from different political parties. The newest and most controversial CPUC member, Michael Peevey, an economist, former utility senior executive and energy services multi-millionaire entrepreneur, has been unequivocal in chiding CPUC President Loretta Lynch for holding items too long for ostensible legal reasons or incomplete facts.

The California Public Utilities Commission held a workshop last Friday to begin sorting out the wide variation in interpretations of what the state bulk electricity buying agency, the Department of Water Resources (DWR), needs in reimbursement from utility retail electric rates.