Ex-Legislator, Professor Picked for PUC

Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday nominated a former Republican congressman and a UC Davis law professor to the Public Utilities Commission, shortly before the powerful agency begins pondering a merger that would create the largest electric utility in the country.

Wilson’s selection of former Rep. Norman D. Shumway (R-Stockton) and legal scholar Daniel Fessler for the prestigious $92,465-a-year posts drew mixed reviews from consumer advocates opposing the proposed merger of Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

It also disappointed PUC watchers in San Diego, where those opposing the merger had hoped that their onetime mayor would appoint one of their own to the agency that regulates service and rates for more than 25,000 privately owned utilities in California. The agency will have final word on the SDG&E; merger.

“We had pushed for someone from down here and we’re disappointed we didn’t get someone,” said Dave Moore, business manager of Local 465 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Audrie Krause, executive director of the San Francisco-based statewide consumer group Toward Utility Rate Normalization, said her organization may oppose the nomination of Shumway, an ardent conservative who has sided with timber interests, big business and banks during his 12 years in Congress. The Senate has one year to confirm the Wilson nominees, who can assume their duties immediately.

“In terms of Shumway, we’re very, very disappointed,” said Krause. “His general voting record indicates he’s a very anti-consumer person. He appears to be somewhat ideologically inclined to oppose regulation of monopolies, and oppose regulation.”

But Wilson predicted both men would “bring a fair and aggressive approach” to PUC business, including the proposed $2.6-billion merger between Rosemead-based Edison and SDG&E.; Oral arguments over the controversial proposal are scheduled to begin March 6 before the five-member PUC, leaving Tuesday’s nominees short notice to study up on the issue.

The governor’s move to fill the two vacancies comes at a crucial time in the proceedings. Earlier this month, two state administrative law judges recommended that the merger be turned down, saying it would be anti-competitive, although it would save five million Southern California ratepayers more than $1 billion over the next nine years.

Fessler, 49, received a law degree from Georgetown University and a Ph.D. from Harvard before joining the University of California, Davis faculty in 1970. An expert in contract law, he helped fashion arguments in a landmark 1970 civil rights case that held government must deliver comparable services to all of its citizens, regardless of race or economic status.

That experience eventually led to “Wrong Side of the Tracks,” a critically acclaimed book Fessler co-authored in 1985. The book argued that common law established a legal precedent for monopolies treating all of its consumers equally. Fessler said the new governor recruited him for the PUC post last month.

Unlike Fessler, the 56-year-old Shumway said he actively sought the PUC post. Shumway retired from Congress last year after representing his San Joaquin Valley district since 1978. An SCE spokesman said Tuesday the company had no comment on the appointments except to say that both nominees “were qualified.”

Times staff writer Greg Johnson in San Diego contributed to this story.