SANTA MONICA, Calif.,
Sept. 23, 2016
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Fair Political Practices
Commission has launched an investigation into the California
Democratic Party and alleged violations of the Political Reform Act
in response to Consumer Watchdog's investigative report, Brown's
Dirty Hands, the public interest group was told today.
"We are pleased that the FPPC has launched an investigation into
the troubling pattern of contributions to the California Democratic
Party by oil, utility and energy companies uncovered in 'Brown's
Dirty Hands,'" said Jamie Court,
president of Consumer Watchdog. "The Party and members of the
Administration who worked for it have a lot of questions to answer.
Political parties shouldn't be used as laundry machines for money
from unpopular companies or for campaign contributions in excess of
candidate-permitted limits."
For the FPPC letter announcing the investigation, go
here: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/resources/fppc_cdp.pdf
To read Brown's Dirty Hands, go here:
www.consumerwatchdog.org/dirtyhands
For a video on the report, go
here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3t0ZgT-ahLg
Consumer Watchdog released Brown's Dirty Hands on August 10. The report tabulated donations
totaling $9.8 million dollars to
Jerry Brown's campaigns, causes, and
initiatives, and to the California Democratic Party since he ran
for Governor from 26 energy companies with business before the
state. The companies included the state's three major
investor-owned utilities, as well as Occidental, Chevron, and
NRG.
An exhaustive review of campaign records, publicly-released
emails and other documents at PUCPapers.org, court filings, and
media reports, showed that Brown personally intervened in
regulatory decisions favoring the energy industry, and points to
Brown and his operatives having used the Democratic Party as a
political slush fund to receive contributions from unpopular energy
companies in amounts greater than permitted to his candidate
committee.
Between 2011 and 2014, the energy companies tracked by Brown's
Dirty Hands donated $4.4 million to
the Democratic Party, and the Democratic Party gave $4.7 million to Brown's re-election. Consumer
Watchdog submitted its report to the Fair Political Practices
Commission as a sworn complaint.
Consumer Watchdog submitted the report, "Brown's Dirty Hands,"
to the FPPC as a sworn complaint in August.
The timing of certain donations coincided with legislative or
regulatory action on behalf of these companies. Among the examples
detailed in the report:
- Southern California Edison donated $130,000 to the California Democratic Party, its
largest contribution up until that time, on the same day PUC
President Michael Peevey cut a
secret deal with an SCE executive in Warsaw, Poland to make ratepayers cover 70
percent of the $4.7 billion cost to
close the fatally flawed San Onofre nuclear plant. Brown backed the
dirty deal, telling Edison's CEO personally, according to an email
from the CEO uncovered by the Public Records Act, that he was
willing to tell the media on the day of the plant's shuttering that
the company was acting responsibly and focused on the right things.
Three days prior to SCE's announcement that it would close San
Onofre permanently, the company donated $25,000 to the California Democratic Party.
- Emails from PG&E's top lobbyist Brian Cherry to his boss claim that Brown
personally intervened with a PUC Commissioner to persuade him to
approve a natural gas-fired power plant called Oakley for the utility. In a January 1, 2013 email, Cherry described a
New Year's Eve dinner with Peevey
where Peevey reminded him "how he and Governor Brown used every
ounce of persuasion to get [Commissioner Mark] Ferron to change his mind and vote for
Oakley…Jerry's direct plea was decisive." PG&E donated
$20,000 to the California Democratic
Party the day after the PUC voted for the project. An appeals court
would later strike down the decision because PG&E had not
proved its necessity.
- While PG&E's lobbyist and then-PUC President Michael Peevey fed names to Brown's executive
secretary, former PG&E vice president Nancy McFadden, to appoint the critical
swing-vote PUC commissioner who would cast pro-utility votes,
PG&E donated $75,000 to the
California Democratic Party. The same day that Brown appointed
ex-banker Mark Ferron to the
commission, PG&E donated another $41,500. The appointment lifted the value of
PG&E's stock and the PG&E stock held by McFadden and valued
as high as $1 million.
- Chevron donated $135,000 to the
California Democratic Party the same day lawmakers exempted a
common method of well stimulation from legislation meant to
regulate fracking. After the bill passed with an amendment dropping
a moratorium on fracking permits, Occidental gave $100,000 to one of Brown's favorite causes, the
Oakland Military Institute. Brown signed the weakened bill. On
December 23, 2013, Chevron donated
$350,000 to the Democratic Party. On
December 30, the Democratic Party
donated $300,000 to Brown for
Governor 2014, while Chevron donated the maximum to Brown's
campaign, $54,400, on the same day.
Less than two months later, Brown came out publicly to oppose a
proposed oil severance tax. The weakened fracking bill also helped
Brown aide Nancy McFadden, who held
up to $100,000 in Linn Energy that
would acquire Berry Petroleum and its 3,000 California fracking wells.
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SOURCE Consumer Watchdog