Mr. Kittle supports the Sunrise Powerlink. If approved, this project
will cost the average household at least $1,500 each. By comparison,
UCAN's legal fees to figh this project are trivial - literally pennies a year.

Mr. Kittle has stated that UCAN has cost SDG&E ratepayers $2.2 million in increased rates from 1989 to 2005. This works out to roughly 14¢ per ratepayer per year, or about 1.2¢ per month. However, in just one of the victories that Mr. Kittle has cited in previous editorials, UCAN has saved SDG&E victims roughly $197 per household.  We will let you do the math to determine if this is a good return on your investment.

Here is how CPUC, the California Public Utilities Commission functions

Unlike an ordinary business, which must compete in the free market, SDG&E / Sempra, is a privately owned monopoly. As a monopoly, SDG&E is GUARANTEED to make a profit by the State of California. However, in order to get those guaranteed profits, it must justify its expenses to CPUC. Obviously, it is in SDG&E's financial interest to continually barrage the Commission with rate increase requests. UCAN receives a significant portion of its income from its participation in CPUC hearings.

At the time UCAN was formed, San Diego citizens paid the highest electric rates in the continental USA.

In the years following 1984, UCAN's aggressive intervention on your behalf in CPUC hearings resulted in SDG&E's rates being reduced to among the lowest in the State of California. In some cases, thanks to UCAN's expert testimony, SDG&E's demands for higher rates have resulted in CPUC rulings that have ordered SDG&E to lower its rates rather than increase them.

This type of highly effective legal and regulatory intervention requires knowledge of arcane regulatory laws, technical evaluations, engineering expertise, and accounting acumen. This broad array of professional skills costs money.

How UCAN is reimbursed

A significant portion of UCAN's revenue comes from partail reimbursements of our court costs by CPUC, the California Public Utilities Commission. This type of reimbursement is known as "intervenor compensation." After a rate hearing is concluded, CPUC determines the value of UCAN's contribution to the hearings. If CPUC determines that our work and testimony has no value, then we receive nothing. In addition, if CPUC decides that we have replicated the work of its own staff in our testimony, we will receive nothing (See role of ORA below).

When SDG&E files a new rate request, UCAN's attorneys, energy experts, and auditors, carefully scrutinize every aspect of the proposals. We pore though thousands of pages of testimony and evidence to evaluate the merits of SDG&E's rate demands. Usually, our extensive audits uncover massive amounts of pork. In many cases we have documented perjury and outright fraud.

Unfortunately, perjury, fraud, misinformation, and outright lies are almost as common in the American power industry as the deceptive statements made by SDG&E's lackey and stenographer-in-chief, Robert A Kittle.