State Water Agency Accused of Stonewalling

The chairman of a state Senate committee investigating suspected price gouging in California’s electricity market accused a state agency Monday of failing to cooperate.

Sen. Joe Dunn (D-Santa Ana) said officials of the state Department of Water Resources have for two weeks resisted his committee’s efforts to obtain documents relevant to the investigation.

Since January, the department has requested more than $8 billion to buy electricity on behalf of financially crippled Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric.

Dunn, chairman of the special committee investigating charges of market manipulation and price gouging by energy wholesalers, told the Senate Rules Committee on Monday that water department officials had been “less than cooperative” in providing documents voluntarily.

Oscar Hidalgo, a spokesman for the water department, denied that the agency was refusing to cooperate.

Dunn told the committee that the water department gave no records until Friday when it released a batch of contracts, documents the administration had fought for months to keep out of public view. The administration opened the materials under a court order.