Southern California Gas Co

Everyone knows solar power can heat homes and generate electricity. But on a rooftop in Downey, Southern California Gas Co. engineers are using solar mirrors to cool down their offices. Engineers are testing two technologies that use mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto pipes with water running through them. The heated water powers a thermal process in a chiller that cools the cold water used in air conditioning units. "When we tell people we heat water up only to cool it down, they don't get it at first," said David Berokoff, a technology development manager at SoCal Gas. "But all this technology has been around for a while.

Southern California Gas Co. and the union representing its workers are running out of negotiating time on a labor contract that expires this weekend. A strike could begin as early as midnight Saturday against the company that serves more than 20.3 million consumers in Southern California. On Sunday, Local 132 of the Utility Workers Union of America, AFL-CIO, asked its members for an authorization vote that would give the union the right to call a walkout if negotiations fail.

The gig: President and chief executive of Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co., regulated utilities owned by San Diego-based Sempra Energy. SoCalGas is the nation's largest gas distribution utility, with 5.6 million business and residential meters. SDG&E supplies electricity to 3.4 million homes and businesses and is the natural gas provider for 825,000 customers in San Diego and southern Orange County. Background: Born in Long Beach.

A Bay Area environmental group filed a lawsuit Thursday alleging that Southern California Gas Co. operations near Marina del Rey are polluting a local water table. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, charges that the utility is in violation of Proposition 65, which prohibits discharge or release of chemicals known to cause cancer or birth defects.

Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. have $5 million apiece burning a hole in their pockets that they want to lend, at no cost, to small businesses to buy energy-efficient equipment.

The consumer arm of the state Public Utilities Commission recommended Thursday that Southern California Gas Co. customers get a $68-million rate reduction starting in 2008 instead of the $140-million increase sought by the utility. In particular, the commission's Division of Ratepayer Advocates objected to incentive bonus and compensation programs that were included in the gas company's rate proposal.

SACRAMENTO -- Phone and energy companies and officials with business before the California Public Utilities Commission and its chairman, Michael Peevey, are helping underwrite the state Senate campaign of Peevey's wife, Carol Liu. Industries regulated by the commission have given $88,783 to assist Liu's 2008 bid to represent a district stretching from the San Gabriel to the San Fernando valleys.

Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric said their customers would see lower energy bills in the coming months because of warmer-than-normal weather in January. The warmer conditions have driven down the cost of natural gas, reducing winter gas and electricity bills from earlier estimates, said the utilities, which are units of Sempra Energy.

Sempra Energy on Wednesday named Debra L. Reed as chief executive of Southern California Gas Co. and its smaller sister utility, San Diego Gas & Electric Co., marking the first time a woman has run the nation's largest natural gas utility. Reed, 50, who retains the title of president, replaces Edwin A. Guiles, 56. Guiles is becoming Sempra executive vice president of corporate development.

Sempra Energy's first-quarter profit increased 6.1%, boosted by higher earnings at the San Diego company's natural gas utilities. Net income climbed to $242 million, or 92 cents a share, from $228 million, or 86 cents, a year earlier, Sempra said Friday. Sempra was expected to earn 84 cents a share, according to a Bloomberg survey. Revenue rose 8.9% to $3.27 billion. Southern California Gas Co. and San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which are owned by Sempra, had combined quarterly profit of $131 million, up 12% from a year earlier.