Edison rate hike causing friction

How’s this for bad timing? As the economy keeps tanking, and as tens of thousands of people are losing their jobs, state regulators are preparing to vote on a rate hike that could grant Southern California Edison Co. more than $1 billion in additional ratepayer cash over the next three years.

A vote had been scheduled for Thursday. But commissioners now want a little more time to tweak a pair of competing rate-hike proposals before pulling the trigger on what would be the state’s first major increase in power rates since it was revealed last month that the economy is in its worst shape since the Great Depression.

As they stand, each proposal would give Edison less than the 20% revenue increase it requested last year, before the depth of the recession became clear.

But whichever plan the commission picks would still represent significantly more than the roughly 4% revenue hike that the California Public Utilities Commission’s consumer-watchdog department believes the utility actually needs under the circumstances.

The commission’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates estimates that average monthly residential bills could rise by as much as $5 under either revenue plan.

Edison says it needs the extra money to maintain infrastructure, as well as to help cover its executives’ multimillion-dollar compensation packages, remodel offices and install new toilets at the utility’s publicly accessible “Camp Edison” campground at Shaver Lake near Fresno.

“Edison wants a lot of money to fund a lot of programs,” said Mark Pocta, a program manager at the Division of Ratepayer Advocates. “We did not find that many of Edison’s requests are justified.”

An Edison spokesman declined to comment on the rate-hike request or on whether the utility could make do with less money until both the economy and ratepayers are back on their feet.

The utility’s critics weren’t nearly so reticent.

“Families are already being pressured,” said Minister L.B. Tatum, lead community organizer for Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches, a grass-roots organization of African American churches that held a town hall on the Edison rate-hike request last year.

“To raise utility rates at this time would place an unfair burden on people.”

California utilities submit general revenue requirements to state regulators every three years. Neither Pacific Gas & Electric Co. nor San Diego Gas & Electric Co. has a general rate case pending.

According to an analysis by the Division of Ratepayer Advocates, Edison’s original request sought an additional $871 million in revenue this year, up 20% from 2008, followed by $288 million more next year and an additional $362 million in 2011 -- a total of more than $1.5 billion from ratepayers over three years.

The Division of Ratepayer Advocates crunched its own numbers and determined that Edison could get by with a much smaller revenue increase of $162 million this year, followed by nearly $136 million next year and $140 million more in 2011.

Then an administrative law judge at the Public Utilities Commission took a crack at the figures. She determined that Edison merited $409 million in extra revenue this year, up 9.4% from 2008, followed by an additional $142 million next year and $147 million in 2011 -- less than half of what the company requested for the three years.

The judge’s proposed plan is one of the two that commissioners will vote on. The other is an alternative cooked up by commission President Michael Peevey, who just so happens to be Edison’s former chief executive.

Peevey felt the judge was shortchanging his erstwhile employer, so he came up with a plan that would grant Edison $555 million in revenue this year, up 12.8% from 2008, with $229 million more next year and an additional $249 million in 2011 -- a total of slightly more than $1 billion over three years.

Peevey didn’t respond to repeated requests for an interview.

But Terrie Prosper, a commission spokeswoman, said a vote on the rate increase was postponed until next week at the earliest because Peevey was “considering revisions to lessen or mitigate the potential impact.” She was unable to comment on the nature of the possible revisions.

I asked whether it was a conflict of interest for a former Edison CEO to be seeking a rate hike for the company that once signed his paychecks.

“This matter was fully considered by the CPUC’s ethics lawyers when President Peevey was first appointed to the CPUC by former Gov. Davis,” Prosper replied, “and no conflict of interest was found to exist, nor does any such conflict exist today.”

She also said it wasn’t a conflict that Peevey’s wife, Carol Liu, received thousands of dollars from Edison executives and their family members last year during her successful run for a state Senate seat.

As a Democratic assemblywoman until 2006, Liu represented La Canada Flintridge. She now represents a district that stretches from the San Gabriel to the San Fernando valleys. Prosper said Peevey was “not constrained in any way” by his wife’s political activities.

Your thoughts on that matter, as well as the need to reach deeper into ratepayers’ pockets as the economy keeps heading south, can be shared with the Public Utilities Commission by e-mailing public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov.

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Protecting your identity

My thanks to the hundreds of readers who shared their sympathies with me after Sunday’s column on how my credit cards and driver’s license were stolen from my gym locker, resulting in about $3,000 in bogus purchases.

Thanks as well to the numerous people who sent me links to YouTube videos showing how a combination lock can be popped open in seconds using a strip of metal from a soda can. Now I know how my thief probably pulled it off.

To those who suggested writing “See ID” on the back of your plastic instead of your signature, sorry to inform you that credit card firms won’t consider your card valid unless you sign it. Merchants are instructed to have you sign the card in their presence before a transaction will be processed, although not all do that.

Many advised me to leave my valuables in the car when I work out, but now I’m freaked about someone breaking into that as well. So I’ll probably start wearing a fanny pack at the gym.

I used to think guys who did that looked dorky. Now I think they look very smart.

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David Lazarus’ column runs Wednesdays and Sundays.

Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.

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latimes.com/lazarus/edison

Weigh in

Should utility rate hikes be put on hold until the economy recovers?