Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) is in regulatory hot water at the California Public Utilities Commission, which is formally considering the future role of natural gas in the state. The Sempra Energy subsidiary was exposed last week to having engaged in an “astroturf,” or fake grass roots, lobbying campaign at the CPUC.
A group called Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions (C4BES) withdrew from the proceeding, where it had been an active participant, when the state Public Advocate’s Office forced the gas distribution utility to acknowledge that the group was a utility front. A report on KQED said, “In a statement, Southern California Gas says it has been transparent in its role in starting and funding the nonprofit. But when the organization joined the regulatory proceeding, saying it wanted to speak for gas users, C4BES didn’t declare any relationship with a regulated investor-owned utility.”
The group’s web site discloses no ties to SoCalGas. The leader of the group is listed as Jon Switalski, who, according to his LinkedIn posting, is a former Michigan Democratic politician and head of a Los Angeles public relations and consulting firm known as Spring Street Consulting.
When the Sierra Club began exploring the group’s ties to SoCalGas, the environmental group filed a motion, which prompted the state consumer advocate to question the use of ratepayer funds to pay a PR firm to set up the front group. On Aug. 16, C4BES withdrew from the proceeding.
The Sierra Club and Earthjustice, the in-house law firm for major national environmental groups [and formerly the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund – ed.] then called for the CPUC to mount a full-fledged investigation into “SoCalGas’s covert activities.” The groups said, “C4BES’ withdrawal does not change the fact that SoCalGas initially sought to use ratepayers funds to create a front group and have it intervene in a Public Utility Commission proceeding with no disclosure of its involvement. This should be just the beginning of efforts to hold SoCalGas accountable for working to undermine climate progress in California.”
Creating fake grass roots organizations to lobby regulators and legislators is not uncommon among investor-owned utilities. In 2017 and 2018, New Orleans-based Entergy Corp., worked with a firm to hire local citizens at $60-$200 to appear before a city council hearing in support of a utility plan to build a new gas-fired power plant.
The exposure of that astroturf effort prompted then-Montana Public Service Commission member Travis Kavulla to tweet, “The pay-for-public comment scandal in New Orleans should make every economic regulator consider that their duty isn’t to do what is popular (or what appears to be popular).”
In other SoCalGas news, the Los Angeles Daily News reported recently that more Los Angeles firefighters have joined a lawsuit claiming health effects stemming from the 2015 Aliso Canyon gas leak, bringing the total of LA firefighters suing the utility to 55. The suit alleges that in helping local residents deal with the massive gas storage blowout, the firefighters faced exposure to unhealthy levels of toxins such as benzene and formaldehyde.
— Kennedy Maize