2nd Official Challenges Self-Appointment in San Bruno Investigation
Jackie Speier joins Jerry Hill in asking governor to replace Michael Peevey
Days after the California Public Utilities Commission president appointed himself to lead the determination of whether PG&E will be fined for the deadly 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, a second elected official has issued a letter to the governor urging him to make a new appointment.
On Friday, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, wrote Gov. Jerry Brown stating her opposition to the self-appointment of CPUC President Michael Peevey, who has been criticized for lax oversight of the utility companies the CPUC is supposed to regulate.
Assemblyman Jerry Hill, whose district includes San Bruno, had written a letter Wednesday to Brown also urging him to consider exercising his authority to appoint a new commission president.
On Tuesday, the CPUC issued a Notice of Assignment indicating that Peevey, who has led the commission for a decade, will oversee the penalty phase of the San Bruno investigation.
In her letter, Speier writes, "I base my objection on the National Transportation Safety Board findings that the CPUC, under Mr. Peevey's presidency, was, in part, to blame for the litany of errors that led to the pipeline rupture."
The Sept. 9, 2010 explosion killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes in San Bruno's Crestmoor Canyon neighborhood.
The penalty phase of the investigation began on Jan. 12 and will determine whether the utility violated laws and regulations regarding the construction of the pipeline, the utility's pipeline maintenance procedures, and its emergency response procedures.
Critics of the decision say that other commissioners have more experience with gas issues than Peevey does, and Speier urged Brown to appoint Commissioner Mike Florio, who was previously a senior attorney at The Utility Reform Network.
Speier wrote to Brown that Florio does not have a conflict of interest "or historical cozy relationship with PG&E."
She wrote that Florio led the agency's efforts to draft rules and request state legislation to help prevent a similar tragedy from happening as reasons for why he should be appointed.
Hill, whose district includes San Bruno, authored legislation signed by Brown this year that requires state natural gas regulators such as the CPUC to take action on safety recommendations handed down by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Hill called Peevey's self-appointment "a slap in the face" to the people of San Bruno.
The commission issued a statement Wednesday stressing that "each Commissioner handles cases across many industries" and that "it takes a vote of the five Commissioners to decide a case at the CPUC."
The assigned commissioner assembles the record and presents a decision to the full commission, but the full commission must vote on that proposal, according to the statement.
Speier acknowledged that the full commission would vote on the final penalties to be levied, adding, "I believe it is prudent to remove from the process an individual who was a key decision-maker during the time that CPUC failed to conduct proper oversight of PG&E."
Robert Montgomery
Why Peevey still has a job is anyone's guess. The guy should have been fired the day the NTSB report came out.
Michael Boyd
Speier wrote to Brown that Florio does not have a conflict of interest "or historical cozy relationship with PG&E."
That's wrong Florio's just as rotten as Peevey; maybe even more so since he purports to represent"consumers".
During the California Energy Crisis of 2000-1, and after for many years, Florio sat on the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator Corporation. While on the Board of Governors in 2001 when the state signed forty three billion dollars worth of long term energy contracts with the same energy bandits that caused blackouts that killed 10 Florio was a bond investor in the bonds sold by DWR; so therein comes Florio's real interest which is putting his own financial interest before those of the ratepayers he purports to represent. So in my mind Florio has a bigger conflict of interest than Peevey...at least Peveey doesn't pretend to represent the ratepayers.