Sacramento, CA..– Governor Jerry Brown today announced the following appointments to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Mike Florio, 58, of Oakland, has been appointed to the Public Utilities Commission. He has worked as the senior attorney for The Utility Reform Network since 1978. Florio is a member of California Conference of Public Utility Counsel. He was also a member of the board of governors of the California Independent System Operator from 1997 to 2005. Florio holds a J.D. from New York University School of Law, a M.P.P. from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University and a B.A. from Bowling Green State University. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $128,109. Florio is a Democrat.

Catherine Sandoval, 50, of Campbell, has been appointed to the California Public Utilities Commission. She has worked as an associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law since 2004. Sandoval previously served as undersecretary and senior policy advisor for housing with the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency from 2001 to 2004. She was vice president and general counsel with Z-Spanish Media Corporation from 1999 to 2001 and was the director of the Office of Communications Business Opportunities for the Federal Communications Commission from 1994 to 1999. Sandoval was an associate with Munger, Tolles & Olson from 1991 to 1994. She earned a J.D. from Stanford Law School, a Master of Letters in political science from Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and a B.A. from Yale. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $128,109. Sandoval is a Democrat.

Governor Brown also announced the following appointments to the California Energy Commission.

Robert Weisenmiller, 62, of Berkeley, has been appointed to the California Energy Commission. He will serve as chair of the commission at the conclusion of the current chair’s term, effective February 6, 2011. Weisenmiller was a commissioner with the California Energy Commission from 2010 to 2011. He was a co-founder and executive vice president of MRW & Associates from 1986 to 2010 and was a co-founder and executive vice president of Independent Power Corporation from 1982 to 1986. He was an assistant to a commissioner, manager of the Special Projects Office and director of the Office of Policy Development and Program Evaluation with the California Energy Commission from 1977 to 1982. Weisenmiller holds a Ph.D. in chemistry and a M.S. in energy and resources from the University of California, Berkeley and a B.S. in chemistry from Providence College. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $128,109. Weisenmiller is registered decline-to-state.

Carla Peterman, 32, of Oakland, has been appointed to the California Energy Commission. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley and currently serves on the board of directors for the Utility Reform Network. Peterman has conducted extensive research on solar photovoltaic markets and climate change, including co-authoring a series of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory publications on cost and deployment trends in the U.S. solar photovoltaic market. She has conducted research at the University of California Energy Institute at Haas since 2006 and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory from 2008 to 2010. She was a business analyst with Isles from 2004 to 2005 and was an associate focused on energy financing in the investment banking division of Lehman Brothers from 2002 to 2004. Peterman holds a B.A. in history from Howard University and an M.S. in environmental change and management and an M.B.A. from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. This position requires Senate confirmation and the compensation is $128,109. Peterman is a Democrat.