Investigation into the California Public Utilities Commission’s San Onofre response

Criminal probe focuses on San Onofre response Warrant examines utilities commission, Edison meetings and UCLA grant funds San Diego Tribune, By Jeff McDonald and Ricky Young Dec. 29, 2015 A state criminal investigation into the California Public Utilities Commission centers around former President Michael Peevey’s persistent intervention into the process to assign costs for the failure of the San Onofre nuclear plant, newly released court documents show.

Specifically, Peevey pushed the idea of plant owner Southern California Edison funding $25 million of greenhouse gas research at the University of California Los Angeles as part of the $4.7 billion settlement deal. The power plant on San Diego County’s north coast closed amid a radiation leak in January 2012. A deal assigning 70 percent of premature closure costs to utility customers has since been repudiated by two of the consumer groups that negotiated it, amid revelations about undisclosed meetings between regulators and utility executives.

A sworn affidavit by an investigator for Attorney General Kamala Harris, unsealed last month, lays out the developing criminal case in detail for the first time.

The 18-page document says improper meetings were held, which might bring misdemeanor charges, but that a conspiracy to commit those misdemeanors could be considered a felony……..

The court document details Peevey’s efforts to win funding for UCLA and researcher Stephanie Pincetl, starting with an undisclosed March 2013 meeting in Warsaw, Poland, with an Edison executive. The affidavit argues that there was probable cause to believe that the executive, Stephen Pickett, conspired to engage in prohibited backchannel communications……..

According to the document, the investigator interviewed Edison International President Ted Craver about Peevey’s efforts to secure Edison grants for UCLA.

Diaz said he “interviewed Ted Craver, who confirmed that Peevey ‘went at him hard,’ telling him that they (SCE) did not get the importance of combatting climate change and this was an opportunity to do something, and if they were smart, they would figure out how to ‘wrap this in a cloak’ and it would be good for public relations.”

The document goes on to describe how Edison never agreed to pay for the research, but it was built in as a requirement in the utilities commission approval process for the San Onofre settlement……..

There is probable cause to believe that Michael Peevey, former President of the California Public Utilities Commission, utilized his position to influence SCE’s commitment of millions of dollars to UCLA to fund a research program,” the affidavit states………

No charges have been filed as a result of the investigation, which is proceeding separately from a federal review of commission practices……. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2015/dec/29/diaz-affidavit-cpuc-probe/

December 31, 2015 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | secrets,lies and civil liberties, USA

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