Independent Study Condemns System of Communications Between Utilities and Their Regulators

The standard practice of allowing private talks between California Public Utilities Commission officials and the companies they regulate “systematically favor[s] the interests of utilities and well-funded parties,” an independent study has found.

CPUC Executive Director Timothy Sullivan retained a public interest law firm, Strumwasser and Woocher, to review the CPUC’s system for handling ex parte communications — the term used to describe private, off-the-record exchanges between regulators and regulated companies or public interest groups.

Such communications have come under scrutiny since it was disclosed last year that a Pacific Gas & Electric Co. executive privately lobbied the CPUC to appoint an administrative law judge the company favored in an important rate-setting case.

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