Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

More stench from California's utilities commission

If state regulator worked with Wall Street, they worked against the public

Michael Picker and Michael Peevey
Michael Picker and Michael Peevey

San Diego attorneys Mike Aguirre and Maria Severson have put together a slide show that reveals how the California Public Utilities Commission courted Wall Street during the 12-year reign of commission president Michael Peevey, a former president of Southern California Edison who is now under criminal investigation.

Sponsored
Sponsored

It is important to know that the commission has no mandate to schmooze Wall Street.

"Its job is to determine if rates are reasonable," says Aguirre.

But I have observed through the years that when a big possible liability arises at one of California's investor-owned utilities — Sempra, Edison International, and Pacific Gas & Electric — the stock does not go down, and Wall Street securities analysts assure potential investors that California enjoys "constructive regulation," which is a euphemism for "pro-utility regulation."

Email evidence that commission president Peevey fostered a relationship with Wall Street

Working with emails provided to them, Aguirre and Severson noted how commissioners visited Wall Street to pitch analysts on how utility-friendly California regulation was at that time. Early on, the slide show reveals an email in which Peevey tells Gavin H. Wolfe, a managing director of investment banking at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, that the then-newest commissioner, Michael Picker (now the president), was coming to Wall Street in 2014. Peevey asks Wolfe to set up Picker with luncheons and meetings with other Wall Street honchos.

Peevey says he wants Picker to learn Wall Street's views of California regulation. That is misleading. Subsequent slides suggest that Picker will be telling the Wall Street analysts how utility-friendly the CPUC is. The emails indicate that Picker met with dozens of securities analysts from brokerage houses, as well as analysts from hedge funds.

Aguirre suspects that during his 2014 trip, Picker told analysts that the commission decision forcing ratepayers to pick up the tab for 70 percent of the cost of the San Onofre decommissioning would not be reversed.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Live Five: Sitting On Stacy, Matte Blvck, Think X, Hendrix Celebration, Coriander

Alt-ska, dark electro-pop, tributes, and coastal rock in Solana Beach, Little Italy, Pacific Beach
Next Article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Michael Picker and Michael Peevey
Michael Picker and Michael Peevey

San Diego attorneys Mike Aguirre and Maria Severson have put together a slide show that reveals how the California Public Utilities Commission courted Wall Street during the 12-year reign of commission president Michael Peevey, a former president of Southern California Edison who is now under criminal investigation.

Sponsored
Sponsored

It is important to know that the commission has no mandate to schmooze Wall Street.

"Its job is to determine if rates are reasonable," says Aguirre.

But I have observed through the years that when a big possible liability arises at one of California's investor-owned utilities — Sempra, Edison International, and Pacific Gas & Electric — the stock does not go down, and Wall Street securities analysts assure potential investors that California enjoys "constructive regulation," which is a euphemism for "pro-utility regulation."

Email evidence that commission president Peevey fostered a relationship with Wall Street

Working with emails provided to them, Aguirre and Severson noted how commissioners visited Wall Street to pitch analysts on how utility-friendly California regulation was at that time. Early on, the slide show reveals an email in which Peevey tells Gavin H. Wolfe, a managing director of investment banking at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, that the then-newest commissioner, Michael Picker (now the president), was coming to Wall Street in 2014. Peevey asks Wolfe to set up Picker with luncheons and meetings with other Wall Street honchos.

Peevey says he wants Picker to learn Wall Street's views of California regulation. That is misleading. Subsequent slides suggest that Picker will be telling the Wall Street analysts how utility-friendly the CPUC is. The emails indicate that Picker met with dozens of securities analysts from brokerage houses, as well as analysts from hedge funds.

Aguirre suspects that during his 2014 trip, Picker told analysts that the commission decision forcing ratepayers to pick up the tab for 70 percent of the cost of the San Onofre decommissioning would not be reversed.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Live Five: Sitting On Stacy, Matte Blvck, Think X, Hendrix Celebration, Coriander

Alt-ska, dark electro-pop, tributes, and coastal rock in Solana Beach, Little Italy, Pacific Beach
Next Article

Poway’s schools, faced with money squeeze, fined for voter mailing

$105 million bond required payback of nearly 10 times that amount
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader