the utility reform network. been around for 30-some years. in oregon, citizen utility board. one of those in i believe in illinois. here in washington, the former general counsel of the regulatory commission has been trying to get the regulatory commission to stop being a complete tool of the companies that it regulates, particularly the pipeline companies, and they have at ever turn blocked him and said you have no right to intervene, we don't have to listen to what you say, we don't care what facts you come up with, a total disregard for the consumer and what happens at that commission is people come in from the industry and leave and become senior executives at the companies they just handed your money too. >> host: for a year they can't go back and lobby. >> guest: i say to you, jayne, you tell the collegeman this because i can't talk to him for a year. >> host: right. so, that's what consumers can do. what would you like to see state legislatures do? on some of the different issues. some of the. >> guest: if every state had a consumer advocate office, well-funded office

times that's been tough on the utility industry whose says it doesn't stand for public utility commissionbecause they are so unpopular he calls of the profit up keep commission. >> host: there are other examples of interesting to me but there's a section on the 401k and the retirement savings what do you find is there a lesson that we can do as individuals if everybody knew how to invest well then they would pay the wages and for all of my education and knowledge i don't know how to do that i just spend less than you make. the efficient way to take care of people's old wage there is not peacekeeping is through defined benefit pension plans and you hear the industry saying let's get rid of these they aren't predictable. that's nonsense you can buy the pension plan call-up any insurance plan and say i'm this age here is how much i have and tell them your gender and get a blood test and we will give you so much a month for the rest of your life when you do it with large numbers what went wrong? companies after the employee retirement income security act was passed in 1974 went to congress an

times" is an tough on utility industry who says pc doesn't stand for public utility commission.he calls that the prophet upkeep commission. >> host: are some of the other samples interesting to me but certainly let you get into a couple that i didn't mention. there's a section on 401(k)s and retirement savings. what would you like to talk about replay, but also is there a lesson in there that we can do as individuals? >> if everybody knew how to invest money the average job on wall street would pay wages. it's absurd. from the knowledge and i were to the college going i'm not an economist and not a good investor. other oddity that. i just know spend less than you make. the efficient way to take care of people's old-age, which there is no escaping the certifying benefit pension plan. use your industries thing we have to get rid of these. they're not perfect. future industries then we have to get rid of these. they're not perfect you can buy then we have to get rid of these. they're not perfect you can buy individual defined pension plan. a lucky company's fantasies, what money at

morning and welcome to the local agency formation commission as a joint meeting with the public utilities commission. my name is chair avalos, john avalos chair of the lafco. i am joined by other lafco members, commissioner olague and commissioner pimentel. this is a joint committee so i will pass on the mic on our chair from the public utilities commission. >> yes, art torres member of puc and other members. thank you very much for being here. we make a very legionary and strong quorum on this rainy day. >> okay. >> and of course our general manager is here as well, har an kelly and the staff of the puc. >> thank you. i want to thank sfgtv for their work broadcasting this meeting, and madam clerk if you could chair with us your announcements. >> please make sure to silence all electronic devices. speaker cards and any documents should be submitted to the clerk. >> okay. do you want to call the roll? you call the roll on puc. >> yes. >> president torres. >> here. >> commissioner. >> here. >> commissioner moran commissioner caen and cortni are both excused from today's meeting. >> okay. th

we interface with each and every one of our utilities and their exercise programs. we carry the best practices from one utility to the next to share that knowledge across discipline. we then execute decisions on the catastrophic plan for california, the one coming up here in the bay area so all utilities understand their role that needs to be played and we can plug and play and the class ral utilities that are going to be called upon to support it from the private and municipal side and this is an on-going living process. working with the local jurisdictions, the county jurisdictions always, the states north and south and the state operations center and then supporting whatever the fema initiatives are moving out from that in cross-discipline lines. >> thank you. mr. brig. >> as an operator of a distribution system, the stories are probably very similar. we have small emergencies every day, small, medium and even large, so the back-up systems, the screening, the ics structure, the spare parts, the communication, those muscles are flexed quite often. the big one is t

the utility boards are really insulated and when i read about the public utilities in the early 1970's the utility boards that i had dealt have some people that were not directly connected to the industry sometimes the it knowledgeable critics and a brilliant businessman who just died recently and made himself a millionaire before he died who were critics of the industry and thought about how they would encourage them to behave in a way that best benefits the overall economy. under governor schwarzenegger it was run by people in the to the industry, the lawyer for the cell phone industry and finance year from the energy industry coming in by quote the editor of a little paper in california, the only people in california besides the l.a. times that's been tough on the bulletin who says the eeoc doesn't stand for public utility commission because they are in the industry he calls it the profit upkeep commission. >> host: some of the rhetoric samples interesting to me, the section on the 401k and retirement, what do you find that you would like to talk about briefly but also is there a l

and i can assure you that both from my utility and all of the utilities across the united states that's not the case. this, in this year alone the electric investor owned electric utilities will be investing more than $94 billion in upgrading the infrastructure. to put it in perspective, for our company we will be investing over $7 billion. and that's more than three and a half timeshe amount of money we make in a ouar. so this is probably the biggest phase of investment in the electric utility industry's history. >> lewis, great insight. thank you f sharing it with the audience tonight. it's lewis hey, executive chairman add next era energy.ou >> susie: new york is also dealing with a massive transportation headache. most subways are still disabled, and new york's financial district is still without power. that means morears on the roads in the nation's busiest city and grueling traffic. erika miller has the latest on getting around the big apple. >> reporter: arst days after sandy walloped new york city, commuters finally heard the familiar rumble of the subway. serviceers still very

we represent the utilities that protect and build the resill yepbs into the infrastructure. we fill a gap in attitude which is the relationships, distant and local relationships, cross boundaries between the multi disciplines in the utilities. we are able to cross those lines in the counties and step up to state operations so everybody is operating in a common operating picture so everybody understands what's available not only in their jurisdiction, but what kind of resources we can bring to bear, short and long-term, how distant those are, what the qualifications are. we have master resource catalogs designed just like fire scope and cal fire in which we have built strike teams from our utilities, strike teams from water companies. they simply make a call and tell us we need 10, 12, 15, it's our obligation to put that together and get it to them. they are worried about the incident in their jurisdiction which they have to correct. it's our responsibility to reach bond those borders as their extension to bring in the reserves that they need to maintain that kaupblt newt of

we worked and looked at ways that we can utilize the building for an office building.build an icon i can building that will house a lot of city departments. >> the san francisco public utilities commission has an important job. we provide clean, pristine public drinking water to 2.6 million people in the san francisco bay area from the hetch hetchy regional water system. with also generate clean renewable energy for city services like public buses, hospitals, schools, and much more. and finally, we collect and treat all the city's wastewater and stormwater making it safe enough to discharge into the san francisco bay and pacific ocean. >> in 2006 the puc was planning a record number of projects. >> the public utilities commission is a very infrastructure-rich organization. we're out there rebuilding the water system. we've budget working on power generation in the country. we've been doing sewer for the city. we're looking at a brand-new rebuild of all watt systems in san francisco and we haven't had a home that's been other than mental. >> they staff over 900 people.

politicians are breathing down the necks of the utilities.s it that we have colleagues here in damage that have no damage in their towns being told that they'll lose two weeks without power. does that make any sense to you? why is this happening? >> it's a complicated machine. you can't really speak to what the inter-decks are. there could be pieces of the system that are down and neighborhoodses which prevent power flowing are one area on another. it's an individual thing. it depends on how the system is configured, what the density of the population is, what kind of customers are involved. all that will all fall back together is a real open question. >> could it be better, though? i keep reading that the civil engineers society in country say the power infrastructure is very far behind when it comes to transmission lines, et cetera. why is it, why are we so far behind? is governor cuomo right to be critical or is he and other politicians part of the problem when it comes to the regulatory framework? >> he's right to be vinlg want. that's pa

liz: watch out utilities. from power companies, to force them to bury power lines. we see that in germany and another one but utilities saying it is expensive and did not work in katrina and expensive to check power lines, concrete utility poles, prepare for 14 foot waves, drone aircraft in hot spots and bigger work crews, utilities and oil 16 times earnings multiple at the highest evaluation in years and there's a reason, when governments put the onus on them to do it, they have to pass along some of which means rating crease last for consumers. cheryl: with the political criticism and another storm in the northeast, is now the time to sell or hold these utilities? travis miller utilities analyst at morningstar joins us now. buying these names under pressure, what do you say? >> if you look at the storm in particular, we think obviously it is a huge storm for utilities, we had eight million plus customers out of power which is among the worst storms we give seen in a long time. we estimate $1 billion of damag

they brought tools, fuel, even spare utility poles. early every morning, the workers show up for another 16-hour day; dispatchers distribute their marching orders; and then the trucks roll out for destinations around new jersey. it's almost like a military operation. >> the moving a small army of guys some as far south of miami to south of miami up to new jersey. that say logistical accomplishment in itself. >> reporter: ralph grant of florida power and light is in new jersey to supervise operations around the company's high-tech mobile command center. his company, naturally, has a lot of experience dealing with hurricanes. but snowstorms like the one that blanketed the northeast on wednesday are brand new to many of the company's workers. >> it isn't quite what we expected when we came up for hurricane restoreation. >> all of the utility >> reporter: all of the utility workers that we spoke to said its an incredibly rewarding feeling once they've managed to restore power to customers who've been in the dark for days. the moneys good,

it's within the purview of the california public utilities commission. our role really is only as an active party there to try and influence their decision. >> so we wouldn't procure the services and audit and whether pg&e is following through on the commitment not to shift the rate for the rate payers and opting into our system? >> i don't know that we would be barred from asking for audits, but it would be a discretion -- it would be at the discretion of the cupuc. they can audit but we don't have independent audit rights over -- >> [inaudible] >> we do for the franchise agreement. >> right. but we could recommend for the puc to take some action. >> i see the city attorney has advice for us. >> the proposed position is audits every two years with the code of conduct rules and rules of compliance. >> and that includes those factors that i raised? >> the code of conduct rules are the ones that would prohibit the utility rate payers for paying for marketing against a cca program. >> all right. i didn't see the specific language so if you could provide it

do not wait until your utility as cut off. you can sit down with the utility company and say i am having a problem. >> officials say fewer people showed up this year which they say is good since it means more people are learning how to manage their income better and do not need assistance. tomorrow is veterans day. the va maryland health care system team up with the local organization to hold a memorial service today. the third annual memorial service was held this afternoon after -- at american legion post 22 in towson. the advent honored all veterans who passed away in the maryland health care system this past year. >> this ceremony would remember those veterans that have passed away. trying to remember those of given their time, their service, for our country. they might not have been the ones who died in action. that is what we reserve memorial day for but this is a service try to remember better and to observe and have now entered our everlasting life. >> there are a number of veterans day events planned for tomorrow all

there is utility work.terms of traffic, if you do want to travel on 95, that is a much better bet. taking a look at the north side, 60 miles per hour on southbound 83 coming down to the beltway. delays on the west side as we continue to move well on i 70 toward the beltway. let's get the latest on the buses and trains. >> we are back on schedule on the metro subway. light rail is on time. the 8 bus with a diversion at cold spring. tell mta about your transit experience. >> good morning, everyone. i do not have a lot to talk about as we head into the weekend it. that is a good thing. this is all quiet. it will be chilly, but nothing of significance that will affect the weather. there is a little disturbance coming across the ohio valley. you have to look close, you can barely see it right here, the rotation in the clouds. is producing cloud cover across baltimore after a clear sky. if you are watching us west of hagerstown, you might have a couple of snow flakes mixed in. as it comes toward baltimore, it sho

it should have been established as a full-service municipal utility, like the 2000 other government utilities in the country. being responsible. gerri: i see them as a monopoly and i'm not sure they should be privatized. congressman turner, over to you. you have probably seen government response to a number of catastrophes in the past. how would you rate governments response from the new york area to hurricane sandy? >> they are getting their act together now. it was either the police and fire or sanitation, beyond that, nobody else was really there. it was private citizens forming a block association, refugee centers, food centers, all of this was done by individual people throughout the boroughs of brooklyn. it took the government a long time to get the services and food and medicine and etc. gerri: we are talking weeks. whenou look at this, how would you rate governments requirements? >> they just point out what was working for and what wasn't working. it's no surprise that ste agencies, city agencies that were working before, the mta and nypd, whether it's lifo where the city housing auth