REALLY? PG&E TAKES ACTION TO ADDRESS EX PARTE COMMUNICATION ISSUES IDENTIFIED IN SELF-REPORT TO CPUC TODAY; PLEDGES 'NO EXCUSES' COMPLIANCE

PG&E TAKES ACTION TO ADDRESS EX PARTE COMMUNICATION ISSUES IDENTIFIED IN SEL

F-REPORT TO CPUC TODAY; PLEDGES 'NO EXCUSES' COMPLIANCE

Release Date: September 15, 2014
Contact: PG&E External Communications (415) 973-5930

San Francisco, Calif.— Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) today notified the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that an extensive internal review of nearly five years of emails between the company and officials at the Commission has identified a number of instances in which PG&E believes it violated the CPUC's rules governing communications with the state regulator in the pending Gas Transmission & Storage rate case.

The communications reported to the CPUC today occurred over a three-week period in January, 2014, during which time a number of e-mails were sent to the CPUC concerning the assignment of administrative law judges and commissioners to the Gas Transmission & Storage rate case. These e-mails may have violated CPUC rules prohibiting certain ex parte communications -- meaning communication with decision-makers that takes place without the knowledge of all parties to a proceeding.

These communications were identified after the company voluntarily chose to broaden its internal review of any potential ex parte communications well beyond those communications referenced in a San Bruno motion filed last July. The expanded review included more than 65,000 emails to and from the Commission since early 2010.

Actions to Address

"As a company, we must be committed to complying with both the letter and the spirit of the law and PG&E's own Code of Conduct at all times. No excuses. That is, and must be, the standard for our behavior individually and as a company," Chairman and CEO Tony Earley and President Chris Johns said in a joint letter to employees today.

They outlined actions resulting from the internal review process:

• Three officers will no longer be employed by the company. They are the senior vice president of regulatory affairs, vice president of regulatory relations, and vice president of regulatory proceedings and rates.
• PG&E has appointed Steve Malnight as senior vice president of regulatory relations. Previously, Malnight was vice president of customer energy solutions. Malnight will report to PG&E President Chris Johns.
• The company is creating the new role of chief regulatory compliance officer, whose mandate will be to help oversee compliance with all requirements governing PG&E’s interactions with the CPUC. The position will report to Chairman and CEO Tony Earley and to the Audit Committee of the PG&E Board of Directors.
• The company has engaged Ken Salazar, a partner in the WilmerHale law firm, as special counsel on regulatory compliance matters to assist in developing a best-in-class regulatory compliance model. Salazar has deep experience in regulatory and energy matters. Among his roles has been service as Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Senator from Colorado, Attorney General of Colorado and Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
• PG&E plans additional, mandatory training for all employees who routinely interact with PG&E's regulators.

Letter to Employees

In their joint letter announcing these actions to employees, Earley and Johns said, in part:

"As a company, we must be committed to complying with both the letter and the spirit of the law and PG&E's own Code of Conduct at all times. No excuses. That is, and must be, the standard for our behavior individually and as a company.

"We all have a responsibility to know, understand and comply with all of the rules, including PG&E's own Code of Conduct, as they apply to our respective roles.

"In these instances, there was behavior that clearly failed to meet that standard, and we greatly regret that. Even absent an ex parte violation, these actions did not represent the company in the manner we expect of our officers. As a result, we took immediate and definitive action. We’re continuing this review and will take additional actions if warranted.

"Beyond that, it is also clear that we need to take additional steps to raise the level of professionalism and propriety in our interactions with regulators. While many of us have felt that criticism characterizing PG&E's relationship with the CPUC as 'cozy' has been unfair, we need to acknowledge that we have earned some of the criticism and we need to take action to change that.

"As we have said previously, we have been very disappointed by the tone of some emails that have been reviewed. While not violations of regulations, they are unprofessional and unacceptable.

"We've made truly incredible progress in terms of our operational focus and in creating a strong safety culture at PG&E. But to be successful, it's also critical that our culture demonstrates an unfailing commitment to conducting our business in compliance with both the letter and spirit of the law and our Code of Conduct and with a high degree of professionalism."

PG&E's filing with the CPUC can be read here.

About PG&E

Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation (NYSE:PCG), is one of the largest combined natural gas and electric utilities in the United States. Based in San Francisco, with more than 20,000 employees, the company delivers some of the nation’s cleanest energy to nearly 16 million people in Northern and Central California. For more information, visit www.pge.com/ and https://www.pge.com/about/newsroom/.

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Contra Costa pipeline safety forums open to public

Hello, Mr. Arsonist!

The Independent Pipeline Safety Trust is coming to town
Learn more

June 3rd, 2015  6:30 to 8:30
Creekside Community Church 
1350 Danville Blvd., Alamo

June 6th, 2015  6:30 to 8:30
Contra Costa County Administration building, 
651 Pine Street, Martinez CA

The Serial Arsonist 

In 2004, I was an arson victim but that was my fourth incident, several months later a Fuel Line killed five, in 2010, an explosion killed eight, in 2015 I called @FERC, five hours later a line exploded in Fresno CA. 
Becoming highly vocal was risky and nearly got me killed.  The Arsonist is likely in Law Enforcement, has connections and that leads whose getting paid. 

Contra Costa pipeline safety forums open to public By Matthias Gafni mgafni@bayareanewsgroup.com Posted:   05/19/2015 12:44:56 PM PDT0 Comments |   Miles of pipeline transport gas, diesel and jet fuel beneath Contra Costa County cities and towns, and the public is invited to learn more about the infrastructure at two public forums next month. The Alamo Improvement Association and the Contra Costa County Hazardous Materials Commission will host the community discussions and cover topics including safety, oversight, inspection requirements and strategies for reducing risk. The forums will include speakers from the national nonprofit Pipeline Safety Trust, the Office of the State Fire Marshal and Kinder Morgan, the private company operating many of the petroleum pipelines throughout the region, including one beneath the Iron Horse Trail Corridor. Hazardous Materials Ombudsman Michael Kent will facilitate both forums, including a question-and-answer period. The first meeting will be June 3, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Creekside Community Church, 1350 Danville Blvd., Alamo. The Martinez forum is June 6 from 10 a.m. to noon at the Contra Costa County Administration building, 651 Pine St., in the board of supervisors chamber. The meetings are made possible by a $50,000 grant obtained by the Alamo Improvement Association from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow him at Twitter.com/mgafni.

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Grand jury probes PG&E’s relationship with state regulators

Source: SF Chronicle
By Jaxon Van Derbeken

Updated 8:11 pm,Thursday, May 21, 2015

Connections

• Southern Pacific
• Officer Down
• Kinder Morgan Explosionx

The Cherry Letter Strikes Again

A federal grand jury is probing potentially illegal ties between Pacific Gas and Electric Co. executives and regulators with the California Public Utilities Commission, The Chronicle has learned.
The investigation is looking into "PG&E’s relationship" with state regulatory officials, according to a May 15 letter to the utility from federal prosecutors.

The probe is separate from the federal court case charging PG&E with violating pipeline safety laws and obstructing justice in connection with the 2010 pipeline explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people. Prosecutors in that case are seeking more than $1 billion in fines from the company, but have not charged individual executives.

The latest grand jury investigation was opened after last year’s disclosure of e-mails between PG&E and the state utilities commission, which prompted probes by both state and federal prosecutors. Some of the e-mails showed a PG&E executive lobbying commissioners and their staffs for a preferred judge to oversee a $1.3 billion rate case. Others indicated that PG&E thought then-commission President Michael Peevey was dangling favorable state treatment in exchange for the utility’s backing for his pet fundraising and political causes.

In the letter disclosing the grand jury investigation, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kim Berger and Hallie Hoffman told PG&E’s lawyers that they plan to use some of the evidence from the probe in the prosecution of the San Bruno case against the company. They did not specify what that might be.

The letter came in response to a PG&E request that federal prosecutors turn over San Bruno-related evidence and notes gathered by state regulators with the utilities commission.
Officials with the U.S. attorney’s office in San Francisco declined to comment on the letter, and representatives of the utilities commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A PG&E spokesman, Greg Snapper, said in a statement: "We’ve publicly reported that state and federal attorneys have begun investigations in connection with these communications. We’re going to keep cooperating with officials as the process moves forward."

The state attorney general’s office opened its own investigation last fall. It has not filed criminal charges.
As part of the probe, state agents served search warrants on the commission’s San Francisco headquarters, at Peevey’s home in Southern California and at the Orinda home of a former PG&E vice president, Brian Cherry. It was Cherry who sent many of the PG&E e-mails that prompted the state and federal probes.
One focus of the state investigation is an apparently secret deal that Peevey outlined in 2013 to an executive of the utility he used to head, Southern California Edison, regarding costs related to the shutdown of the troubled San Onofre nuclear power plant.

Notes that investigators seized from Peevey’s home showed that the deal included provisions for directing utility money into research to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
When the final deal had no such funding, Peevey pressured Edison to put up money, according to a sworn statement by one company executive. Peevey separately indicated to officials at UCLA that they could be in line for a greenhouse-gas funding windfall, e-mails between them show.

When the utility apparently did not budge, Commissioner Mike Florio — who joined Peevey during meetings with Edison — proposed in late 2014 that the commission set aside greenhouse research money from San Onofre for the University of California system. The same month Florio proposed that funding, Peevey landed a seat on an advisory panel at UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation.
Additional e-mails involving back-channel communications between utilities and the state commission continue to trickle out. The most recent came Thursday, when PG&E released an e-mail that Cherry sent in March 2014 to PG&E colleagues recounting a conversation he had with Florio involving a regulatory matter.

Cherry said he had asked Florio whether PG&E should seek to have an administrative law judge, Steve Roscow, recused from a case, which records show concerned PG&E’s efforts to obtain customer money to conduct seismic studies at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. Florio was the commission member assigned to oversee the matter.

"I spoke with Florio about Roscow," Cherry wrote. "Mike believes there is no need to bump Steve if he is the assigned commissioner. He understands Steve’s bias."
Florio figured in another instance of apparent PG&E judge-shopping, telling Cherry in a January 2014 e-mail that he would "do what I can on this end" to "bump" a judge PG&E didn’t want on the $1.3 billion rate-setting case. Florio, an attorney for a utility customer-advocate group before Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him to the commission in 2011, later explained that he "didn't know the rules" against back-channel communications between regulators and utilities and that he had "screwed up."
Florio did not respond to a phone call seeking comment Thursday about the latest e-mail.

Jaxon Van Derbeken is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com

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#PGEDataBreach - One Possible Reason For Fresno

Police Reports and Notices Sent 

Quick Facts

The #PGEdatabreach

Walnut Creek CA: April 24th 2015
These documents were stolen but the list was sent to the PG&E, FBI, and US Attorney on July 26th, 2015.  I've raised the alarm over and over, so being a concerned Citizen that the missing documents could be used for a domestic terrorism incident I called FERC.GOV.

Call Details
Call to FERC.go
Date: April 17th 2015
Time: 8:45 AM 
Outbound Call: discussed endless stonewalling by PG&E, expressed concerns that attorneys, executives and employees have stonewalled Bennett's allegations since 2010.  Shared family, friends , customers and witnesses have been murdered. 

Incident Type: Fresno Explosion
Date: April 17th 2015
Time: 2:30 PM 
Outbound Call: Fresno Fire, Sheriff and CPUC 

PG&E and CPUC (Response History Log)

  

 

 

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CPUC/PG&E Search Warrants

Quick Facts

Main Article

Search Warrant For Peevey/Cherry

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Too Many Suicides

Millions in Hush Money???
PG&E Stonewalled
Bennett to Homelessness
His Family/Friends Murdered
FUCK YOU PEEVEY

San Bruno disaster: PG&E wields 'pervasive' influence at PUC, now described as a 'rogue agency'

Quick Facts

#livesmatter

By George Avalos and Josh Richman

Staff writers

Posted:   01/31/2015 08:38:09 PM PST0 Comments

Updated:   01/31/2015 08:48:05 PM PST

What's being described as the "pervasive" influence of PG&E with the state Public Utilities Commission extended well beyond disgraced former PUC President Michael Peevey and included other commissioners and top PUC staffers.

That's the conclusion of Bay Area political leaders, state legislators and a former PUC official who have reviewed a sampling of the 65,000 emails released by PG&E late Friday.
The tone of the emails stunned even longtime critics, who were mortified to see that PUC and PG&E officials were joking about gas pipeline safety just weeks after a natural gas blast in September 2010 killed eight people and destroyed a San Bruno neighborhood. Investigators concluded that PG&E's shoddy maintenance and flawed record-keeping, along with lax oversight by the PUC, were the key factors behind the explosion.

Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission.

"The PUC is now a rogue agency," Loretta Lynch, a former PUC commission president, said Saturday. "All the checks and balances that existed at the PUC have been corrupted. Peevey led that corruption."
An October 2010 email showed that less than a month after the San Bruno explosion, Brian Cherry, then PG&E's vice president, and Paul Clanon, then executive director of the PUC, joked about gas pipeline safety in a reference to a pipeline in Peevey's neighborhood in the Los Angeles County community of La Cañada Flintridge.
"There's a big line right under Mike's street. He says no more dog-walking," Clanon quipped.
In a jovial email, Cherry shot back: "Tell Mike he should be walking towards Descanso Gardens anyway."

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Descanso Gardens is a 150-acre botanical preserve in La Cañada Flintridge.
"It was shocking to read this email," San Bruno City Manager Connie Jackson said Saturday.
The trove of emails released by PG&E under pressure from San Bruno date back to early 2010, several months before the explosion.
"It is stunning to see the pervasive influence that PG&E had with the PUC going back that far," she said. "These are pervasive problems that have been going on for a long time."
On at least one occasion, the emails show, PG&E executives tipped off PUC officials about an important regulatory filing that the public company was planning to make with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The filing was about the company's general rate case proposal for raising monthly gas and electric bills for residential and business customers.
"Timothy -- FYI. I will be sending you our (SEC filing) in advance of our formal filing," Cherry said in a November 2012 email to Timothy Simon, a PUC commissioner at that time.
"It's almost as if PG&E was a Rasputin, or a Svengali, with the magic power to get the PUC to do what PG&E wanted," said state Sen. Jerry Hill, whose San Mateo County district includes San Bruno. "You have to wonder what other utilities had the same influence, had the same relationships with the PUC."
In another email the same month in regard to the same rate case, PUC Commissioner Michael Florio told Cherry that he had been assigned to supervise the proceeding.
"I did NOT ask for this!! Fortunately for all concerned, we have a good experienced administrative law judge in Tom Pulsifer," Florio wrote. "Can't you protest or something???"
In a statement sent to this newspaper Saturday, Florio acknowledged that he had acted improperly in his dealings with Cherry, whose duties also included lobbying.
"The emails released by PG&E include some messages of mine that confirm what I have already acknowledged -- that in the past I allowed a former PG&E lobbyist to become much too familiar in his interactions with me," Florio said. "For this I have already apologized. Any objective review of my voting record at this commission will demonstrate that I have shown no partiality to PG&E or any other regulated utility."
The PUC remains under intense scrutiny because skeptics believe Peevey created and then nurtured a culture of cozy relations with San Francisco-based PG&E and other utility giants in California. Peevey was appointed PUC commissioner and president in 2002 by Gov. Gray Davis and then reappointed in 2008 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Under intense fire by his critics, Peevey stepped down in December; his 12 years in the top spot at the PUC marked the longest tenure for a PUC president.
In a May 2012 email exchange, Peevey wrote to Cherry to complain of a decision in which Peevey was on the losing side, taking the occasion to chide PG&E for not properly laying the groundwork for the vote by the five-member PUC. The commission rejected a PG&E request to bill its customers for a $9.9 million investment in San Jose-based SVTC Technologies, a solar equipment maker that went out of business in late 2012.
"Got my butt kicked today," Peevey wrote about the 3-2 vote. "Could have used some help. You need to do a better job going forward. You should have let me know if you felt it was in trouble and I could have tried a couple of things to get a third vote."
In the same email exchange, Peevey also warned Cherry, an Orinda resident, that a pet project of Peevey and PG&E involving the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory was in trouble at the PUC.
In an email written in September 2011, Julie Fitch, formerly a top aide to Peevey, and now a top aide to PUC Commissioner Carla Peterman, wrote in an apologetic tone to Cherry about the Carrizo Energy Solar Farm in San Luis Obispo County.
Fitch said a blunder related to a troubled effort to secure approval for the PG&E-backed solar project should be blamed on the commission, so she was scrambling to remedy the problem.
"This is totally our fault and bungling somewhere in the chain," Fitch wrote to Cherry. "Obviously, I'd prefer that this email doesn't circulate far and wide. Thanks!"
At some point, though, it appears that all the lobbying by PG&E infuriated at least one top official at the PUC.
In an October 2013 email, Sepideh Khosrowjah, chief of staff for Commissioner Florio, blasted PG&E's Cherry for what she saw as an end run around her position in Florio's office on a rate case for natural gas transmission that is still pending before the PUC.
"This is unacceptable, disrespectful, and unprofessional," Khosrowjah wrote to Cherry and Cherry's boss, Tom Bottorff, a PG&E senior vice president. "You have been playing this game with me for too many years."

Contact George Avalos at 408-859-5167. Follow him at Twitter.com/georgeavalos.

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PG&E Tim Fitzpatrick - Chief Communications Officer

PG&E Open Letter 

Tweet

Saturday January 29th 2015

Tim Fitzpatrick

Chief Communications Officer 

77 Beale Street, Room 1087
San Francisco, CA 94105

Internet:@PGE_Tim

Re: PG&E Vendor 

Dear Mr.Fitzpatrick, 

In January 2011 a PG&E Certified Vendor initiated a contact call for my programming services.  At the time I was actually homeless. The events that created the homelessness are specific to a Police Corruption Scandal locally known as the CNET Scandal.  

In 2004 I was living in Danville when everything around me spun out of control.  A divorce, hit and run, accidents, clients threatened and one very strange truck fire where Police and Fire all stated it wasn't arson.  

During the PG&E engagement several events occurred that should be of utmost concern to PG&E. 

• PG&E Laptop Breached - See July 26th 2014 Cherry Letter 
• PG&E Sniper Attack - See blog on lost documents 
• PG&E Kidnapping - Walnut Creek 
• PG&E High Performance Engineer in my offices 
• PG&E Stonewalling of Bennett 

 What PG&E doesn't know about is my attorneys offices burned down in 2001 via arson the FBI investigate as I didn't waste time with Local Police. Last week Chief Chaplin provided me with years of police reports being stalled by the former regime, at another agency there are 20 false reports, with others there are another 100 reports.

Whoever is behind these events are connected to your explosion, to several arson fires near me and numerous deaths.

The  #pgedatabreach via a theft of my laptop filled with PG&E Data by your MBE Vendor falls into extremely dangerous territory.  My review of the files revealed maps to the Metcalf Attack.

The Brian Cherry letter was accurate and recently I've linked one again persons near your organization lead backwards to my truck arson, assault cases and from my perspective.

Starting in 2004, Former Superior Court Judge Joel Golub laid down over $15,000 in fines but here again one a former PG&E Senior Counsel Howard Golub of Nixon-Peabody is yet another PG&E connection where the San Ramon Valley School district filed orders on me all lead to the officers on this page.  

Seems like the Golub's failed in many ways and their obstruction of justice and interference with lawful court orders. 

Today we're going ask the FBI why another PG&E Employee seems to be connected to me.  In 2004 Judge Golub was well aware of my 2004 Truck Arson, a 2011 Hit and run that breached your databases and after nearly four years with CHP Threat Assessment Unit the murders near multiple incidents are far too many year.

In my opinion CHP is under pressure to coverup events and more than one agency has lost officers near my events.  I shared the PG&E and Truck Arson Story with Officer Youngstrom and months later he was dead.  

#pgewitness
#chpwitness
#seenowitness
#cnetwitness
#bremerwitness

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The Fate Of Millions and a Bottle of Whiskey

In the memo, Cherry recounted a meeting New Year's Eve of 2012 at Peevey's Sea Ranch vacation home on the rugged northern Sonoma County coast. The chat ended amicably, he said, "with a dram or two of Johnny Walker Blue Label whiskey."

Just what I wanted to know the same weekend my friend was killed and my truck was towed off in via persons strong connected to former San Bruno Resident Benny Chetcuti Jr. who is suspect #1 in my 2004 Truck Arson where I was nearly burned alive on 680.  

La Times 
PUC leader critical of San Bruno officials, email shows 

U.S. and state law enforcement agencies have launched inquiries into the relationship between the utility and http://fw.to/EgLXn9B

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Utility Regulator in More Legal Trouble Over Emails?

Quick Facts

Bennett vs. PG&E
The Unpaid Invoices

Hobbs Act
Connecting Gas Line Explosions
The Murder Suicides

Coming Soon

• Letters to PG&E Attorneys
• Letters to Kinder Morgan 
• Letters to US Attorney 
• Letters to FBI
• Letters to Walnut Creek 
• Letters to the Looney Bin 

Main Article

Legal trouble appears to be mounting for Michael Peevey, the outgoing president of the California Public Utilities Commission. An NBC Bay Area investigation has uncovered apparent violations of state law at the commission, even as Peevey is under fire for his overly cozy relationship with Pacific Gas & Electric Company, and under investigation by the U.S. Attorney and the state attorney general.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has confirmed Peevey failed to file required disclosure forms for hundreds of thousands of dollars he successfully requested from PG&E, the company he is supposed to regulate. This new revelation begins with aMay 2010 email from Brian Cherry, then vice president of regulatory affairs at PG&E. 

• Attorneys Suggest Evidence Isn’t Safe at CPUC

The email details a Memorial Day weekend dinner Cherry had with Peevey where promises were apparently made in exchange for favors. According to the email, the two discussed Proposition 23, a measure that would have suspended the law governing California’s fight against global warming. Peevey wanted it to go down and the email shows he wanted help from PG&E. 

Cherry writes that Peevey “stated very clearly he expects PG&E to step up big” and contribute to a campaign to defeat the proposition. “We need to spend at least $1 million,” Cherry writes, adding, “I asked for clarification and [Peevey] said ‘at least’ doesn’t mean $1 million, it means a lot more.”

“That’s a solicitation, as far as I am concerned,” said Jim Ruane, mayor of San Bruno. “It shows there are backroom dealings going on.” 

Ruane has been critical of the CPUC and PG&E since the utility company’s pipeline exploded in San Bruno in 2010, leaving eight people dead. The CPUC initially refused to release the email. It took the city of San Bruno several months and $200,000 in legal expenses for a judge to force the CPUC to turn over the email and thousands more.

Britt Strottman, the attorney representing the city, said Cherry’s email in particular sends a message that the regulatory environment in California is broken. 

“I think that escalates from the word 'cozy' to 'corrupt,'” Strottman said.

In the email, Cherry also writes that the CPUC expected PG&E to contribute $100,000 to a nonprofit engineered by Peevey to fund the Commission’s 100-year anniversary celebration. Cherry said that Peevey told him he was “on notice.” 

• CPUC President Will Not Seek Reappointment

The email suggests an exchange of services. Not only did the email detail what Peevey wanted, it also appears to outline what PG&E needed.

Cherry writes “[Peevey] is aware that we are looking for a good GRC [General Rate Case] decision,” referring to PG&E’s proposed 20 percent rate increase for its customers. The email went on to say that Peevey said to “expect a decision in January [2011]—around the same time of the PUC’s 100th Anniversary celebration. I told him I got the message.” 

“To me that shows, 'You do me a favor, I’ll do you a favor,'” Strottman said. “'Let’s scratch each other’s backs.'” 

Loretta Lynch, the former CPUC president, said the email crosses the line. 

“You cannot say, 'Please pay for my dinner, please pay for my party and please pay for the initiative I like' in exchange for favorable treatment from my state appointment,” Lynch said.

• An End to Utility Funded Travel for CPUC President?

Campaign disclosure forms obtained by NBC Bay Area show PG&E contributed at least $650,000 to the campaign to defeat Proposition 23—the campaign Peevey suggested. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, PG&E spent at least $20,000 supporting the commission’s January 2011 anniversary celebration at the Julia Morgan Ballroom in San Francisco. PG&E declined requests by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit to confirm the amount the utility gave to the CPUC’s party.

After the anniversary celebration, Peevey apparently went to bat for PG&E’s move for a rate increase. In a May 2011 email, Cherry asked CPUC commissioners to vote in favor of a proposal Peevey had written supporting a rate increase. “We encourage you to approve the…decision proposed by president Peevey,” Cherry wrote. 

• Flown, Wined and Dined on Lobbyists' Dimes?

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit has confirmed that Peevey failed to file a state-required disclosure document called a “Form 803” detailing “behested payments” or successful requests for money from PG&E. California Form 803 is designed to let the public know when a commissioner requests money for legislative, governmental or charitable purposes. The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) has confirmed Peevey did not disclose the $20,000 PG&E paid for the CPUC 100-year anniversary party or the $650,000 PG&E donated to Peevey’s state campaign of choice — in this case, the campaign to defeat Proposition 23. 

“Not disclosing that, not making that information available to the public, I think that’s a huge problem,” said Sarah Swanbeck, policy and legislative affairs officer for the government watchdog group California Common Cause. 

The FPPC has joined the U.S. Attorney and California attorney general in investigating Peevey and the email. A failure to file the required Form 803 with the state can be punishable as a misdemeanor, including a fine and removal from office. 

Peevey has declined multiple requests for an interview, but last month announced that he will not seek another term. His last day as CPUC president is December 31. 

• San Bruno Mayor Questions Aggressive Language by CPUC President

“I don’t believe he has said anything publically about this at all,” Ruane said. “He just seems to continue feeling that business as usual is going to be accepted. And we won’t stand for it.” 

Lynch said the CPUC has stopped regulating and instead is a “lapdog of the regulated utilities. The system doesn’t work that way. It’s clearly broken and it’s time to fix it.” 

PG&E fired Cherry and two other PG&E executives for what the utility called inappropriate email exchanges with the CPUC. Requests for interviews with PG&E and Cherry have been declined. 

• Peevey's Priority: Senate Hearing or Napa Winery?

If you have a tip for the Investigative Unit email theunit@nbcbayarea.com or call 888-996-TIPS. 

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CPUC head Michael Peevey to step down

The King Is Gone Now Pay Me

Quick Facts

•  Peevey Out 
• Cherry Out 
• Pay Pete Bennett 

CPUC and PG&E

The president of the California Public Utilities Commission, who came under fire for the agency’s lax regulation of Pacific Gas and Electric Co. before the deadly San Bruno explosion and for recent revelations of back-channel communications with utility executives, said Thursday he would step aside when his term ends in December.

“Twelve years is enough,” said Michael Peevey, 76, who is completing his second six-year term as head of the commission.

In a statement that made no mention of the recent PG&E controversies, Peevey said he had originally planned to disclose his plans at the commission’s meeting next Thursday, “but instead I am moving the announcement to today.” He gave no explanation.

His successor on the five-member commission will be named by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The announcement was cause for celebration by Peevey’s critics, including Democratic state Sen. Jerry Hill, whose Peninsula district includes the neighborhood destroyed by the explosion of a PG&E pipeline in September 2010. Federal investigators criticized Peevey’s commission for not having done more before the disaster to force PG&E to test its pipes for problems and maintain a safe gas system.

“Now we need to rebuild the PUC. That’s the good news,” Hill said. “We can start the process of changing the culture at the Public Utilities Commission to protect the public.”

San Bruno Mayor Jim Ruane said, “We certainly hope that it will be the start of the revitalization of the Public Utilities Commission. It's not going to happen overnight, but I definitely believe that Mr. Peevey's leaving is a start.”

The person who took this picture is likely connected to the Arson Network

The Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocate group, said Peevey shouldn’t wait until December to depart. “TURN calls on him to resign immediately and for Gov. Brown to replace Peevey as president immediately,” said the group’s president, Mark Toney.

A spokesman for the governor said Brown had no comment on Peevey’s announcement.

Peevey’s defenders said the PG&E controversies shouldn’t overshadow his accomplishments, including helping California’s utilities recover from the energy crisis of the early 2000s and providing support for green-energy programs.

“This is the strongest environmental record ever created by a California commissioner,” said Ralph Cavanagh, energy program co-director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

When Peevey arrived at the commission, Cavanagh noted, the state was beset by rolling blackouts and soaring electricity prices.

“It fell to Mike to quite literally rebuild California's utility system,” he said. “The utilities were in shambles. He restored California utilities’ ability to invest in infrastructure and capacity. He made sure that capacity was used to improve the environmental and economic performance of the system.

“We stand as a demonstration for the world ... that good economic and environmental performance go hand in hand,” Cavanagh said.

Criticism of Peevey had intensified in the past month with PG&E’s release of several e-mails that embarrassed the commission president and other state regulators.

On Monday, jvanderbeken@sfchronicle.com

Peevey problems

Michael Peevey’s legacy at the California Public Utilities Commission is partly defined by the agency’s oversight of Pacific Gas and Electric Co., which in recent years has been problematic.

May 2010 — Peevey appeared to dangle favorable commission treatment of PG&E to contributions he wanted to make in a state ballot measure campaign and toward a party for the state agency, a former PG&E executive wrote in an e-mail released this week.

August 2011 — The head of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigated the PG&E pipeline blast in 2010 that killed eight people in San Bruno, said the utility had “exploited weaknesses in a lax system of oversight” and that regulators had “placed a blind trust in operators, to the detriment of public safety.”

April 2013 — A PG&E official e-mails Peevey chief of staff Carol Brown for advice on how to get around a public-information request. Brown answers with two alternatives, to which the PG&E staffer replies, “Love you.”

January 2014 — A PG&E vice president e-mails Brown and other commission officials seeking to have a preferred administrative law judge assigned to a $1.3 billion rate-setting case. When the e-mail is released in September, Brown resigns and Peevey recuses himself from a separate case in which PG&E could be penalized $1.4 billion in connection with the San Bruno explosion.

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