A report by Deborah Behles and Steve Weissman.
Emails released beginning in the fall of 2014 demonstrate several improper private communications between high-level utility officials and decision-makers at the California Public Utility Commission (“CPUC”). The email chains show discussions ranging from a utility repeatedly lobbying on the outcome of an enforcement matter or aggressively pushing for a new judge assignment, to a commissioner soliciting donations to a political campaign or a banquet fund. Entities in the transportation industry have also alleged improper contacts with CPUC officials. In each instance, the CPUC decision-makers did not report the communications or insist that the utilities stop sending them. Rather, they actively participated in the exchange sand, if anything, encouraged them.
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