Officials Demand Criminal Probe Of Pg&e's Judge-shopping

Two state legislators and the mayor of San Bruno demanded Friday that state Attorney General Kamala Harris open a criminal investigation into whether Pacific Gas and Electric Co. broke the law by lobbying state regulators in a rate case that could result in consumers paying more than $1 billion for gas-pipeline improvements. PG&E barraged the state agency in January with e-mail complaints about two prospective judges, and responses from a member of the commission and the top aide to commission President Michael Peevey indicated that they were working to appoint a third judge preferred by company executives. The e-mails have proved to be an embarrassment for the utilities commission, which was criticized by the National Transportation Safety Board in its probe of the San Bruno explosion for having been too lax in its regulation of the utility. The commission had no comment on the letter to Harris. Besides a possible criminal probe, PG&E is facing regulatory sanctions for the e-mail campaign.