Features

SAN FRANCISCO — The California Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to decide whether power regulators unlawfully authorized a utility to use money generated by record-high electric rate hikes to pay its debts. 

The case was brought by consumer advocates challenging a 2001 closed-door settlement between the Public Utilities Commission and Southern California Edison, one of two California utilities thrust into debt by soaring energy costs during the state’s recent power crisis. 

The settlement between Edison and the PUC enabled the utility to pay its debts — and avoid joining fellow utility Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in bankruptcy court — by keeping temporary rate hikes in place for two additional years. 

But the Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco-based consumer advocacy group, sued, saying the settlement has forced millions of customers to continue paying among the highest rates in the country for expenses the rate hikes weren’t intended to cover. 

The court’s eventual decision could also affect PG&E’s future, as the PUC has proposed a similar plan to help the state’s largest utility settle debts and emerge from Chapter 11 protection. 

The Supreme Court chose to take the case at the request of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the state had violated open-meeting laws.