SCE Accused of Stalling Merger Review

A government agency that represents the public interest in utility matters has accused Southern California Edison of needlessly delaying the state Public Utilities Commission’s review of Edison’s proposed merger with San Diego Gas & Electric.

The state Public Utilities Commission’s Division of Ratepayer Advocates also alleges that the delays will prevent staff members from completing their initial review of the merger by a Jan. 16 deadline.

The division has asked a PUC law judge to extend that filing deadline until Feb. 15. A ruling is expected in early January.

Michael Shames, executive director of Utility Consumers Action Network, a San Diego-based consumer group, supports the DRA’s demand for additional time.

“The public interest will not be served . . . if the DRA is not allowed to do a thorough job of their analysis,” Shames said. “The commission has to prevent the utilities from continuing their delaying and obstructionist tactics.”

Diane Wittenberg, Edison’s manager of corporate communications, denied that the Rosemead-based utility has purposely stalled the DRA’s merger investigation. She acknowledges that Edison has been slow to respond to DRA requests for information because company executives are being swamped by similar requests from other parties involved in merger reviews by the PUC and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Edison will oppose a revised filing deadline if it would “delay a final decision in any way,” Wittenberg said.

“If moving their filing back puts back the final (PUC) decision, then we would be against it.”

Edison and SDG&E; want the PUC to stick to a tight schedule that calls for a final PUC vote on the merger before 1990 ends. Commission members, too, want the review to be completed by the end of next year because two members, Frederick Duda and Stan Hulett, will leave the commission at the end of 1990.

In recent filings with commissioners, DRA Director Terry L. Murray contended that, even with additional staffing, his division will be unable to provide commissioners with a “comprehensive and complete” merger review by Jan. 16.

Murray contends that the DRA, which already has assembled “one of the largest staffs ever assigned” to an individual PUC proceeding,” has been stymied because the normal avenues for staff access to Edison have been suspended for this case. Edison, in general, is routing all questions through its lawyers.

“Information that should have been available in days, or in some cases, hours, took weeks or months,” Murray said.

Shames complained that, without time, the DRA “won’t be able to do the job that we’re paying them to do” and “their effort would be rendered meaningless.”