San Diego

San Diego Gas & Electric has asked the state Public Utilities Commission to prohibit the city of San Diego from making public sensitive documents that were obtained during the PUC’s review of SDG&E;’s proposed merger with Southern California Edison.

The city wants to use the documents “to further their public relations campaign” against the merger, SDG&E; attorney Greg Barnes said Monday. “We have asked the commission to prohibit (the city and others) from publishing confidential SDG&E; papers unless and until they are entered into evidence in the PUC’s public record on the merger proceedings.”

The utility turned the disputed papers over to the city as part of the discovery process accompanying the PUC’s merger review. The documents were released “under a designation of attorney’s eyes only,” Barnes said, but the city subsequently asked a PUC administrative law judge for permission to make the documents public.

SDG&E; wants the PUC to “follow usual practice” and not even consider whether the protected documents can be made public until the city attempts to enter them as evidence in the PUC’s review.