CPUC rules utility can’t pass fire lawsuit costs onto customers
By Kevin Fixler, Santa Rosa Press Democrat
State regulators moved Thursday to deny a California utilities giant the ability to pass costs from a wildfire legal settlement onto its customers — a decision that could have broad implications for the fire-ravaged North Bay.
With its unanimous 5-0 vote, the California Public Utilities Commission rejected San Diego Gas & Electric’s request for authority to hike rates to cover $379 million in uninsured damages it must pay stemming from three costly wildfires in 2007.
Ahead of the meeting, commission staff recommended against granting the petition that both Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison supported. Two of the agency’s administrative judges wrote a lengthy opinion outlining how they found the publicly-traded utility’s control and management of its facilities before the wildfires to be “imprudent” and “unreasonable.”