San Diego Gas

Prominent Los Angeles real estate developer Rick Caruso is expected to build a large-scale retail and entertainment center in north San Diego County after acquiring a plot of land along Interstate 5 from a local utility. Caruso said Thursday that he has agreed to buy a 48-acre parcel on Cannon Road in Carlsbad from San Diego Gas & Electric to be used for a future real estate development. Terms of the sale were not revealed and Caruso did not say exactly what he hopes to build, but he is best known for his Grove shopping center in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles and his Americana at Brand retail and residential development in Glendale.

Though public debate over the future of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is proper and healthy, it is important that customers understand exactly how their rates are calculated and how utilities' costs are recovered from long-term investments in critical electricity grid infrastructure.   On its face, Times columnist Michael Hiltzik's argument that utility customers should not have to pay for a power plant that, like San Onofre, is not currently producing electricity seems perfectly logical.

Though public debate over the future of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station is proper and healthy, it is important that customers understand exactly how their rates are calculated and how utilities' costs are recovered from long-term investments in critical electricity grid infrastructure.   On its face, Times columnist Michael Hiltzik's argument that utility customers should not have to pay for a power plant that, like San Onofre, is not currently producing electricity seems perfectly logical.

There are train wrecks, and there are train wrecks. Then there's San Onofre. You probably know San Onofre as the full-figured fiasco overlooking the Pacific Ocean near the Orange/San Diego county line. Beginning in 2004, Southern California Edison, the nuclear power plant's principal owner, oversaw a $770-million project to replace its two aging steam generators with new models. The new units, which were supposed to last 20 years, lasted scarcely 20 months before showing alarmingly severe wear and tear.

I think there's something wrong with our commentary priorities. With all the problems we have with the homeless, traffic congestion, funding our schools, etc., surely home rule of San Diego Gas & Electric must be way down the list. But no. We're going to spend every last dollar buying out SDG&E and trying to run it. Come on. Let's get our priorities straight. TONY NUCCIO Vista

Southern California Edison has offered to take over San Diego Gas & Electric. SDG&E is the worst-managed public utility in the United States and has cost the residents of this county untold overcharges for utilities. Why have you not used your highly influential newspaper to encourage this takeover? Nothing but good can come of a takeover with Southern California Edison's proven cost-conscious management. J. E. CRAWFORD Vista

An Assembly committee Monday defeated a bill by Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego) that called for an advisory vote of San Diegans on the proposed merger of San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison. Killea was able to muster just six votes for the bill in the Assembly Utilities and Commerce Committee, where seven votes are required for passage. Although Assemblyman Bill Bradley (R-San Marcos) supports the bill, he missed Monday's hearing because he is hospitalized in San Diego with a bleeding ulcer.

A 35-year-old San Diego man was died Thursday when the van he was driving hit the rear of a cement mixing truck on northbound Interstate 5 at Del Mar Heights Road. The California Highway Patrol said the van, driven by Solomon Eugene Head, an employee of San Diego Gas & Electric Co., hit the cement truck 10:59 a.m. Head was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in Encinitas, where he died at 11:53 a.m. The driver of the truck was not identified.

Merger Would Increase Competition: Competition among electric utilities in the West would increase if San Diego Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison are merged into the nation's largest gas and electric utility, the two utilities maintained in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. They said their proposed merger would give competitors increased access to the limited number of existing transmission lines in California and the West. Critics contend the merger would stifle competition, and that Edison for years has denied municipal utilities access to its transmission lines.

The San Diego Clean Air Coalition is concerned with the very possible large increase of air pollution if Southern California Edison takes over the San Diego Gas & Electric power plants. We might find ourselves producing power (with its accompanying pollution) for Orange County and the rest of Edison's service area. Edison President Howard Allen alluded to this when he explained the benefits to his constituents. Our skies are already tinged with brown, and our Encina and South Bay plants could double or triple their pollution.

Prominent Los Angeles real estate developer Rick Caruso is expected to build a large-scale retail and entertainment center in north San Diego County after acquiring a plot of land along Interstate 5 from a local utility. Caruso said Thursday that he has agreed to buy a 48-acre parcel on Cannon Road in Carlsbad from San Diego Gas & Electric to be used for a future real estate development. Terms of the sale were not revealed and Caruso did not say exactly what he hopes to build, but he is best known for his Grove shopping center in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles and his Americana at Brand retail and residential development in Glendale.

Experienced consumers know that whenever a company says it's changing its services to serve them better, it's wise to count the silverware and make sure the doors are locked. But San Diego Gas & Electric Co. has lately unveiled a groundbreaking advance in the art of shafting customers and disguising it as an act of love. The utility wants to give some of its 1.2 million residential customers the option to prepay their electric bills. Think of it as similar to a prepaid cellphone for which you buy a basket of minutes in advance; in this case you would put money in an SDG&E account, and when your electric usage drains it down you would refill it with cash or by bank card to keep the lights on. What could be more convenient than that?

Several California utilities should be penalized for receiving bonuses while falling short of their energy-saving goals, the state utility regulator's independent watchdog arm said Tuesday. From 2006 to 2008, Southern California Edison , Pacific Gas & Electric Co., San Diego Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Gas Co. spent $2 billion of customers' money, amassed through a small charge on each bill, to fund energy efficiency programs that were expected to return $2.7 billion in savings.

Some power companies are pulling the plug on old-fashioned mechanical electric meters, and to the likely disappointment of growl-happy dogs, fewer meter-readers will be invading yards across Southern California. Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas and Electric and San Diego Gas and Electric are upgrading customers to digital "smart meters" that can transmit real-time data about electricity use back to the utility company wirelessly. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is updating meters too, but primarily for larger businesses.

The Public Utilities Commission on Thursday rejected a plan by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to turn off power to back-country areas during times of high winds and low humidity to avoid a repeat of the disastrous fires that ripped through the county in 2007. The commissioners, in a 4-1 vote, said the company had not shown that its plan would decrease the chances of fire. Commission member Rachelle Chong said she was influenced by opposition from the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, the county Office of Emergency Services and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Even as firefighters continue fighting the Station fire, the largest brush fire in Los Angeles County history, an emotionally charged issue is flaring over how to avoid a repeat of the disastrous 2007 fires in San Diego County. On Thursday, the Public Utility Commission is set to vote on a San Diego Gas & Electric Co. proposal to turn off power to some back-country areas during fire-prone times of high winds and low humidity. The fires, which burned more than 200,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,500 homes, were caused by sparking electrical wires blown down by unusually fierce Santa Ana winds.

The settlement with bankrupt United Petroleum Distributors of Houston and its president, Edward J. Fourti calls for both sides to drop their lawsuits. San Diego Gas & Electric had alleged that United defrauded it out of $31.2 million in fuel oil as part of an oil-storage agreement in 1978, while Fourti countersued on charges of breach of contract and false representation. SDG&E said it already has written off $30.6 million in probable losses from the deal.

An administrative law judge and a member of the Public Utilities Commission offered different recommendations Tuesday about a controversial plan by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. to shut off power to fire-prone backcountry areas during high winds. The full commission will consider the contrasting recommendations at its Sept. 10 meeting, officials said. PUC member Timothy Alan Simon proposed that the utility be allowed to shut off power, although he attached several conditions.

Lis Sines of Hermosa Beach loves watching her electric meter run backward. When that happens, she knows that the 20 solar panels on her roof are producing more power than she needs to run her 3,800-square-foot home. The excess electricity flows to the electric company's grid, and she gets its full retail value credited to her utility bill. Sines' electric bill has plunged since she and her husband, William, installed a photovoltaic system on their roof three months ago.