Top California regulator ends last meeting without addressing scandals that marred tenure

SAN FRANCISCO — California's chief utility regulator ended the last scheduled public hearing of his increasingly embattled 12-year term Thursday with no explicit reference to the alleged back-channel dealings with the state's largest utility company that have marred his tenure.

California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey's only public reference to the matter Thursday was an enigmatic one. At the close of the hearing, in which Peevey allowed two hours of public testimony by allies praising him, Peevey raised both hands in the air.

"I surrender!" he declared, with no explanation or further comment.

State and federal prosecutors have notified Pacific Gas & Electric Co., whose region covers the northern two-thirds of the state, that they are investigating emails between CPUC officials and PG&E employees.

The utility disclosed the investigation in October and also released emails in which a PG&E executive described a private dinner where Peevey discussed PG&E regulatory matters while soliciting large donations from the utility. The PG&E executive, who has since left the utility, said Peevey asked PG&E to donate more than $1 million to support an environmental ballot initiative and make a separate $100,000 donation to a celebration of the utility commission's 100th anniversary.

Those and other emails heightened complaints by ratepayers groups and others that the commission under Peevey was too cozy with utility companies. Federal investigators who investigated a 2010 PG&E gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in a San Francisco suburb concluded lax regulation by the commission contributed to the disaster.

Peevey has made no public comment on the allegations against him in recent months. In October, as the federal and state investigations into the emails were made public, Peevey announced he would not seek reappointment when his term expired this winter.

Earlier in Thursday's hearing, Peevey opened the floor to dozens of former utilities commission staffers, union officials, nonprofit representatives and others who praised him.

California Highway Patrol officers briefly surrounded the only person who took the floor to condemn Peevey. "You belong in jail," Steve Zeltzer, a local activist, told him.

"I don't like the accusatory tone," Peevey responded.

Peevey leaves with state authorities still deciding PG&E's final penalty for the 2010 explosion in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno, Mark Toney, the head of The Utility Reform Network, a ratepayer advocacy group, noted outside the meeting.

Jim Ruane, mayor of San Bruno, where the pipeline blast also destroyed dozens of homes, said he hoped Peevey's departure would lead to change in the regulatory commission.