[RTC List] State telecom regulation = corporate welfare?

[Sean McLaughlin]

For those who follow legislative and regulatory vagaries of telecom and 
media policy in the U.S. and California - it is not surprising to see 
AT&T and Comcast at the top of this LA Times story on State influence 
peddling...

Seeing that AT&T's state CEO was on the trip makes you wonder, were the 
rural representatives on the Governor's Broadband Task Force invited to 
join the PUC Commissioners on their visit to Japan to study broadband 
deployment there?

_____________________________

Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-energy5apr05,1,1984500.story?coll=la-headlines-california

 

*State leaders play, others pay*

*Tax-exempt groups whose donors include big corporations with business 
before the state pick up the tab for lavish overseas travel.*

By Peter Nicholas, Times Staff Writer
April 5, 2007

 

SACRAMENTO --- Anyone trying to find high-ranking state officials this 
week might check posh overseas tourist spots --- where many are 
traveling for free.

About 16 Schwarzenegger administration officials, regulators and state 
lawmakers are spending spring break on fact-finding missions and 
conferences in Europe and Japan. The excursions were paid for by 
tax-exempt groups whose donors include corporations with business before 
the state, according to itineraries and guest rosters compiled by trip 
sponsors.

Among the participants are companies regulated by state government.

Winding up a six-day trip to Tokyo is a group of four legislators and 
two members of the state Public Utilities Commission, which regulates 
the energy and telecommunications industries. They were joined by 
executives from AT&T, Comcast and a firm that is proposing to build a 
liquefied natural gas terminal in the port of Long Beach, Sound Energy 
Solutions.

The entourage stayed at the Four Seasons Tokyo at Chinzan-so, described 
by Frommer's travel guide as sporting a "gorgeous glass-enclosed indoor 
pool surrounded by greenery.... "

On the other side of the globe, about 10 senior Schwarzenegger 
administration officials, a legislator and state board members with 
oversight over the environment are completing a weeklong trip to 
Brussels, Bonn and London.

The nonprofit California Climate Action Registry is paying for the 
visit, according to some participants. The registry receives donations 
from utility companies PG&E and Southern California Edison, along with 
the energy company BP, among others. Traveling with the state officials 
were executives from Chevron, PG&E and other corporations.

"They are often extremely luxurious trips, where, we fear, a lot more 
lobbying and schmoozing goes on than actual work," said Mindy Spatt, a 
spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network, a San Francisco consumer group.

Under state law, businesses are not permitted to pay for travel by state 
officials. But officials are allowed to accept travel underwritten by 
tax-exempt groups such as the ones that provided the trips to Tokyo and 
Europe.

That's a loophole in the law, some watchdog groups said.

"It's money being funneled by a private company through" a nonprofit, 
said Robert M. Stern, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for 
Governmental Studies and a co-author of the state's 1974 Political 
Reform Act. "The company gets to go on the trip and have access to the 
officials."

The Tokyo trip is being funded by the California Foundation on the 
Environment and the Economy. In material sent to participants, the group 
said the purpose was to study broadband technology and liquefied natural 
gas.

A number of energy companies pay dues to the foundation. PG&E, for 
example, said it paid $40,000 in dues last year. Verizon said it paid 
$15,000; Sempra Energy Solutions, $30,000.

Participants included Public Utilities Commission members Rachelle Chong 
and Timothy A. Simon.

AT&T's representative on the trip was Ken McNeely, president of the 
company's California operations. The day before the trip began, the PUC 
approved AT&T's application for a state license to provide video service 
in California.

The Tokyo itinerary shows the group arrived Saturday and spent the next 
day touring the city.

They visited two shrines, said state Sen. Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego), 
who was reached at her room at the Four Seasons. What followed later in 
the week were meetings with government officials and businessmen.

"I think it's worthwhile," Kehoe said of the trip. "We met ... with the 
Ministry of Internal Affairs in telecommunications and had a very good 
briefing on how they rolled out broadband deployment."

The trip arranged by the Climate Action Registry carried a busy 
schedule. Guests moved from Belgium to Germany and on to Britain for 
meetings on global climate change.

State government participants included PUC Commissioner John Bohn and 
Linda Adams, the governor's Environmental Protection Agency secretary.

On Tuesday, Adams wrote a blog entry on the state's website: "It was an 
action-packed day, but there is no rest for the weary. Last night we 
flew to London to meet with our colleagues in the UK Government today 
and tomorrow."

Nancy Whalen, marketing manager for the Climate Action Registry, did not 
return calls seeking comment.

 

 

 

 

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