BROWN APOINTS TURN ATTORNEY, FCC VETERAN TO CPUC

Gov. Jerry Brown appointed Mike Florio and Catherine Sandoval to the California Public Utilities Commission, a five-member panel that sets electricity and natural gas rates.

Until his appointment, Florio, 58, was a senior attorney with The Utility Reform Network (TURN), a consumer group that frequently challenges PG&E’s rate requests. Sandoval, 50, is a former Federal Communications Commission official with a background in telecommunications regulation.

The utilities commission has come under intense scrutiny in the wake of last year’s fatal explosion of a PG&E pipeline line San Bruno, with critics complaining that the regulators had grown too close to the companies they regulate. Brown’s choice of Florio seems designed to answer those criticisms.

The governor also named another TURN associate to the California Energy Commission. Carla Peterman, 32, is a PhD. candidate at UC Berkeley and a member of TURN’s board of directors. She brings to the commission a research background on the solar power market.