June 10, 2023 The Best Source of News, Culture, Lifestyle for Culver City, Mar Vista, Del Rey, Palms and West Los Angeles

Rebuke For PUC as Consumers Get Half a Win

By Tom Elias

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bottom line on the 2012 shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station was that by all sensible logic, consumers should never have had to pay anything for its eventual scrapping.

And yet, customers of two of the three largest electric utilities in California have paid for its closure every month since early 2014, when the state Public Utilities Commission – without so much as a public hearing – assessed consumers almost 70 percent of the $4.7 billion costs. So far, customers of the Southern California Edison Co. and the San Diego Gas & Electric Co. have paid more than $2 billion.

But the incident has ended up as the first time in modern memory where the scandal-ridden PUC essentially admitted a mistake of billion-dollar proportions. This one resulted from a well-documented secret meeting during a 2013 trade conference in Poland which saw Edison executives and former PUC President Michael Peevey agree on terms of the 2014 decision and evade public hearings. An ongoing criminal investigation has so far yielded no indictments.

The monthly payments by consumers will now end, under terms of a new settlement agreed to early this month by Edison and several consumer groups. Customers will save about $873 million over the next four years, eliminating the “nuclear decommissioning charges” item on their monthly bills. The average customer will be spared paying a total of more than $100.

The new deal should serve as a warning to both the PUC and other major California utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and the Southern California Gas Co. that commission decisions are not necessarily final and can be altered if consumer interests are sufficiently persistent and if those decisions are not reached with integrity.

Most persistent in pursuing cancellation of the secretive earlier settlement were former San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre and his law partner Maria Severson, who endured frequent mistreatment from PUC commissioners as they represented a group called Citizens Oversight in pursuing the new deal.

“Consumers should feel good about not paying for this anymore,” said Aguirre. “But we’re well aware that stopping future collections is not the same as recovering all the money that’s been collected.”

In all, consumers who were assessed about 70 percent of the total shutdown costs in the original settlement now have paid about 53 percent of those expenses and won’t pay more.

That doesn’t alter the moral reality that in a perfect world, consumers would have paid nothing beyond the approximately $500 million worth of replacement power the companies provided after San Onofre was disabled.

This morality is clear because the plant had to be closed due to failure of a steam generator built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries whose design Edison knew could fail.

In a 2004 letter to Mitsubishi executives, Edison Vice President Dwight Nunn wrote that “I am concerned that there is the potential that design flaws could be inadvertently introduced into the steam generator design that will lead to unacceptable consequences (e.g. tube wear and eventual tube plugging). This would be a disastrous outcome…”

Despite that foreknowledge, Edison installed a steam generator that produced precisely the “disastrous outcome” of which Nunn warned, leading to closure of San Onofre many years before its lifespan was expected to end. Edison later sued Mitsubishi for the full costs of the shutdown, but got only $125 million, a small fraction of what it sought.

Since consumers had nothing to do with the conduct of either Edison or Mitsubishi, it made no sense for them to pay any of the decommissioning costs. But they will not be getting back what they’ve already paid.

The new settlement thus represents a sort of compromise, with consumers ending up out only about two-thirds of what the first settlement called for. It also spells relief for Edison, whose corporate fortunes have been uncertain as long as the San Onofre case hung over it.

But it’s a defeat for the PUC and its current president, Michael Picker, who voted for the 2014 deal and later pledged transparency, while steadfastly refusing to explain his reasoning, even to legislative committees demanding details. The PUC also faces the possibility of an FBI investigation of this entire fiasco.

California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)
Related Posts

American Cinematheque Debuts First Los Angeles Abel Ferrara Retrospective

June 9, 2023

June 9, 2023

The Weeklong Series Will Have Live Scores, A Concert, and Q & A’s With Ferrara By Dolores Quintana The American...

(Video) Shongee, One Of The Vendors At Made With PRIDE Marketplace

June 9, 2023

June 9, 2023

This interview took place at The Made with PRIDE Marketplace is located on level one in Center Plaza in Santa...

Mayor Karen Bass Has Tested Positive For The Coronavirus

June 9, 2023

June 9, 2023

A Regular Test Revealed That She Had Been Infected  Mayor Karen Bass has tested positive for Coronavirus, and her office...

Officers Administer Life-Saving Narcan to Overdose Victim Found Unconscious on Sawtelle Blvd

June 9, 2023

June 9, 2023

Two Doses Of Narcan Revived The Subject and Saved Their Life Officers on patrol in the vicinity of Sawtelle Blvd...

(Video) Ribbon Cutting At The Grand Opening of Made With PRIDE Marketplace

June 8, 2023

June 8, 2023

Mayor Gleam Davis, Santa Monica City Council member Phil Brock, and Laura Barnehama, Co-Founder of Streetlet. The Made with PRIDE...

The Michelin Guide Announces New California Restaurants Added To The Guide

June 8, 2023

June 8, 2023

Westside Restaurants Are On The List; Designations Will Be Announced on July 18 By Dolores Quintana The MICHELIN Guide is...

Little Jabronis Pop-Up Will Preview The Menu At The Highly Anticipated Best Bet

June 8, 2023

June 8, 2023

Pre-Orders Are Open Now For Friday, Pick-Ups At Chef Neroni’s The Rose Venice  By Dolores Quintana Today, Chef Jason Neroni...

Taste Of The Nation Charity Event Returns To Culver City This Weekend

June 8, 2023

June 8, 2023

Tickets Are Still Available For This Event Benefiting No Kid Hungry Los Angeles’ much-anticipated gastronomic event, Taste of the Nation,...

Tamales Olmeca Brought Some Of The Best Tamales In Town To Striking WGA Writers

June 7, 2023

June 7, 2023

Owner Yunia Fumes Mata Brought Tamale Magic To The Amazon Studios Picket By Dolores Quintana  Yunia Fumes Mata is the...

(Video) Made With PRIDE Marketplace Intro By Laura Barnehama, Co-Founder of Streetlet

June 7, 2023

June 7, 2023

The Made with PRIDE Marketplace is located on level one in Center Plaza in Santa Monica Place which is located...

LA County Board Of Supervisors Pass A Motion Of Support For Striking WGA Writers

June 7, 2023

June 7, 2023

Motion Was Authored By Supervisors Lindsey P. Horvath and Kathryn Barger By Dolores Quintana Today The Los Angeles County Board...

Culver City Fire Department To Hold Annual Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser

June 7, 2023

June 7, 2023

The Breakfast Benefits The Culver City Firefighters’ Foundation  Culver City’s local fire department will celebrate Fire Service Day on Saturday,...

Culver City Summer Movie Vacation Series Debuts This Year

June 7, 2023

June 7, 2023

Ticket Only Three Dollars Per Person At The Culver Theater  By Dolores Quintana For the first time this summer, Culver...

(Video) The Grand Opening Ceremony For Made With PRIDE Marketplace Speech From Santa Monica Mayor Gleam Davis

June 6, 2023

June 6, 2023

The Made with PRIDE Marketplace is located on level one in Center Plaza in Santa Monica Place which is located...

Landlords Could Be Required To Provide Cooling Equipment To All Rental Units

June 6, 2023

June 6, 2023

The Los Angeles City Council Is Now Considering This Recommendation From Committee By Dolores Quintana While many apartments have window...