PUC Bucks SDG&E; Case to State Courts

The California Public Utilities Commission has sent back to the state courts a petition by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to cancel or revise a contract the utility has signed with a Boston-based firm that plans to build an electricity-producing trash burning plant in San Marcos.

SDG&E; had asked the state commission to cancel the contract with Thermo Electron Corp. The contract calls for SDG&E; to purchase energy from the future trash-to-energy plant at rates higher than are now paid by the utility.

PUC authorities ruled that the matter was a contract issue between the two parties that should be settled in the courts, according to Tom O’Donnell, a local spokesman for Thermo Electron.

Peter Hanschen, attorney for Thermo Electron, called the PUC ruling “very, very significant” and said the company will pursue a court case it had filed earlier in San Diego Superior Court.

Utility attorneys had argued that the PUC should rule on the validity of the power-purchase contract, which was signed several years ago when power rates were high, because it adversely affected the cost of power to SDG&E; customers.

The $350-million trash-burning plant, which had been scheduled to be built nearly a decade ago, is designed to dispose of about half of the North County’s trash.