PUC Member to Quit, Blames Frustrations

One of two Republicans on the California Public Utilities Commission resigned Wednesday for what he called health reasons and frustration with policy changes at the powerful agency.

Richard A. Bilas, an economist appointed to the PUC by former Gov. Pete Wilson in 1997, will step down nine months before his term ends Dec. 31.

His departure creates an opportunity for Gov. Gray Davis to name a new member and gain greater influence over the commission, which regulates private electric, natural gas, railroad, water and telecommunications companies.

Davis appointees Carl W. Wood and Loretta M. Lynch, the PUC president, have occasionally defied the governor on high-stakes electricity industry decisions.

Bilas said he will leave the commission March 8, two days after the PUC is scheduled to make an important decision about the future of electricity deregulation in California.

The five-member commission is set to vote on whether businesses and institutions can continue to buy power from companies other than major utilities.

A Fulbright scholar, college professor and former talk show host, Bilas joined the PUC after it had voted in 1994 and 1995 to open California’s electricity industry to competition.

But when the deregulation plan went badly awry in 2000 and 2001, Bilas addressed the fallout, including voting for the largest electricity rate hike in the PUC’s history.

Henry Duque, Bilas’ fellow Republican on the PUC, called Bilas a collegial, independent thinker and said he hopes the new appointee will have similar attributes.

“I hate to lose him. He is a good friend, and I have enjoyed working with him over the years,” said Duque, whose term expires Jan. 1. “But I will survive as the remaining Republican on the commission,” he said.

In a letter to Davis, Bilas explained that his own brush with cancer a year ago and his wife’s health make it impossible for him to serve adequately as a commissioner.

“Moreover,” he wrote, “the events of Sept. 11 have changed my thinking considerably.”

Bilas, 67, added without elaboration that “I have been most frustrated by the policy changes at the commission.”

In an interview, he said he would not explain his frustration with the commission until after he resigns.

“It’s premature,” he said. “I’ve still got to be with the commission for another 10 days.”

Bilas added that he has “nothing but good memories” from his years on the panel.

Mike Florio, senior attorney with the Utility Reform Network, said Bilas probably got weary of being on the losing side of so many votes at the PUC.

Often the commission’s votes were split 3 to 2 along partisan lines.

Florio said Bilas was consistently a free-market advocate.

“He was the anti-regulation guy,” Florio said, “and we naturally are pro-regulation.”

In a written statement, Davis thanked Bilas for his service and said he would begin searching immediately for a replacement.

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Vogel reported from Sacramento, Reiterman from San Francisco.