Advocate Wants $648M Payout For 'Inappropriate' Nuke Pact

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A state advocate on Friday recommended that two Southern California power companies return at least $648 million to their customers because of evidence of "inappropriate conversations" involving the state's top utility regulator in a deal that divided nearly $5 billion in costs from the demise of the San Onofre nuclear power plant.

The Office of Ratepayer Advocates, an arm of the California Public Utilities Commission, said in a statement that private conservations between the commission's then-President Michael Peevey and a Southern California Edison executive gave the utility an unfair advantage.

The proposal does not call for voiding the 2014 deal. Instead, it asks that the Edison and minority owner San Diego Gas & Electric Company pay additional funds to customers.

"This back-channel deal between a regulator and the utility may have undermined the efforts ... to negotiate the best deal for ratepayers," the office said. "The process for fair dealings at the (commission) had been severely compromised."

The commission last year approved a settlement under which consumers would pay $3.3 billion and shareholders would pay $1.4 billion of costs stemming from the closing of the plant, which is owned by Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Company.

Edison said in a statement that the 2014 settlement "is fair and reasonable, was properly negotiated and is in the public interest." Edison disagreed with the proposed penalty and disputed that the company had an unfair advantage in the negotiations.