Second California Regulator Under Fire for PG&E E-Mails
A second California regulator deliberating on a $1.4 billion penalty proposal against PG&E Corp. (PCG) for its role in a deadly 2010 natural gas pipeline blast has come under attack for communications with the company.
Commissioner Mike Florio’s credibility is “substantially compromised,” Connie Jackson, city manager for the city of San Bruno where the explosion took place, said in a phone interview yesterday after PG&E disclosed e-mails between the company and him.
Florio, a former consumer advocate, is one of four remaining members of the California Public Utilities Commission poised to vote on the penalty after President Michael Peevey announced last month he’ll recuse himself from the proceedings because of “inappropriate e-mail exchanges.”
Florio said his exchange with the company about pressure on a natural gas pipeline didn’t violate the commission’s rules and was part of his effort to understand the situation.
Officials from the city of San Bruno have said the commission is too cozy with the company. The city has called for the appointment of an independent ethics monitor and the creation of additional ex parte reporting requirements.
The company last month said it fired three executives and brought in a compliance officer after reporting e-mails the agency has described as inappropriate.
“Amazing how I’ve become ‘an apologist for PG&E’ in just three short years, isn’t it?” Florio says in one e-mail. PG&E said the two workers involved in the e-mails are no longer employees.
Florio said he put the term between quote marks because he expected people might accuse him of being an apologist, not because he considered himself one.
Source: bloomberg- Second California Regulator Under Fire for PG&E E-Mails
