WASHINGTON—The Utility Reform Network and the Division of Ratepayer Advocates of the California Public Utilities Commission asked the agency to reconsider its recent decision overhauling the telecom consumer bill of rights and replacing it with a campaign emphasizing enforcement and education.
“With this application for rehearing, TURN and DRA are attempting to focus the commission’s attention on those specific erroneous and illegal elements of the decision that could be particularly dangerous to the public interest were they to be left standing as precedent in future proceedings,” the groups told the CPUC.
TURN and DRA said the March 2 bill-of-rights ruling “relies on a record that is flawed and incomplete due to an overreaching May 2, 2005, assigned commissioner ruling that unduly limited the scope of discovery and thereby constituted an abuse of discretion by the commission and a violation of parties’ due process rights.”
The assigned commissioner was former CPUC member Susan Kennedy, who left to become chief of staff to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in January.
TURN and DRA also are challenging the CPUC’s rejection of TURN’s motion to have Kennedy recused from the bill-of-rights proceeding. The groups said last month’s CPUC ruling appears to unduly limit consumers’ private rights of action and represents an abuse of agency discretion because it relies on inconsistent and arbitrary standards and rationale.
TURN and DRA said they supported a separation application for rehearing filed by California Attorney General Bill Lockyer.
