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Deal that burned ratepayers for $1,650.00 each to be revisited in public hearings
The Honorable Mike Aguirre, and law partner Maria Severson
of Aguirre & Severson LLP will be available for comment after
2:00 PM this afternoon on the attached Order Instituting
Investigation into the failure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating
Station (SONGS).
Aguirre & Severson is the only law firm that filed a timely petition
for rehearing at CPUC, and the only law firm that filed a petition
in Federal Court protesting the unlawful decision. The decision
forced ratepayers to bail out the failed nuke plant to the benefit of San Onofre’s investors. The reopening of the hearings represents a humiliating admission by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that the SONGS bailout wasn’t kosher, and that CPUC failed to do its job of protecting electricity ratepayers.
The deal, which was initially touted by the CPUC as a ratepayer
“refund,” has been exposed as a fraud. The so-called “refunds” will actually cost the average Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric ratepayer $1,650.00 in increased rates (SOURCE).
On May 14, 2014, Mike Aguirre, a former federal prosecutor,
outlined the secret scheme in a CPUC approval hearing which
was the final step in CPUC’s rubber-stamp affirmation of the illicit
bailout.
The video of this hearing was prescient and shocking
In that video, which is noted for the seeming mental breakdown of
the Commission’s president, and SCE conspirator, Michael Peevey,
Mr. Aguirre outlined his contention (now proven accurate) that
Commissioners were meeting secretly with Southern California
Edison to shift the cost of the failure to the ratepayers.
Did Southern California Edison commit perjury?
We now know in hindsight that virtually all of the allegations made
by Mr. Aguirre in that video-taped were true. We know for a
a fact that utility commissioners had been secretly meeting with top
Southern California Edison executives minutes before the May 14
CPUC hearing.
It is salient that in this meeting, the president of Southern California
Edison may have perjured himself when he stated that he had not
participated in any secret or unreported ex parte (outside the court)
meetings with CPUC commissioners.
The San Onofre hearings were wrongful because public hearings were never held.
The public was never allowed to see the evidence showing that SCE’s
failed generators were an experimental new design that was not
properly licensed to meet federal safety standards.
Nor was there a public discussion as to why a $1,650 per ratepayer
rate hike was deceptively touted as a “refund.”
At no time has the Commission explained why its top commissioners and judges aren’t being prosecuted, fined, or sanctioned for their alleged criminal activities as documented in a sworn affidavit by the California Department of Justice.
It is hoped that this re-hearing of the San Onofre Bailout will consider the all of the evidence. Namely, that CPUC’s claimed “refunds” were actually a lucrative $1,650 per-meter rate hike that benefitted Southern California Edison’s investors and executives at ratepayer expense.
A copy of the Commission’s Order Instituting an Investigation into
San Onofre is attached.
CONTACT: To arrange an interview with Mike Aguirre or Maria
Severson, call Charles Langley at (858) 752-4600
Click here to view the Order Instituting Investigation.
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