Gavin Newsom demands PG&E pay $100 to each customer affected by California blackouts

[Hoodat]

Gavin Newsom demands PG&E pay $100 to each customer affected by California blackouts

Bryan Anderson     |     Oct 14, 2019   02:33 p.m.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom wants PG&E to give $100 to each of the hundreds of thousands of customers who experienced blackouts last week when the company shut off power to swaths of Northern California.

“Californians should not pay the price for decades of PG&E’s greed and neglect,” Newsom announced on Monday. “PG&E’s mismanagement of the power shutoffs experienced last week was unacceptable. We will continue to hold PG&E accountable to make radical changes – prioritizing the safety of Californians and modernizing its equipment.”

In a letter to the state’s Public Utilities Commission on Monday, Newsom confirmed that the state would launch an investigation into PG&E’s decision to shut off power and its implementation of the outages that left an estimated 2 million residents and 800,000 customers without electricity.

The commission’s president, Marybel Batjer, announced later in the day that the PUC will hear from PG&E executives in an “emergency meeting” in San Francisco on Friday about lessons learned from the shutoffs. The company must submit an internal review to her by Thursday.

PG&E cut power to customers last week as a precautionary measure meant to prevent wildfires. The company’s equipment caused deadly fires in 2017 and 2018, and PG&E faces billions of dollars in liabilities related to the damage.  .  .  .

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article236213388.html


Pure unadulterated fascism.

[skeeter]

Grandstanding a&&hole. I really despise this jerk.

[Cyber Liberty]

It should be obvious by now Cali wants PG&E, and other energy utilities, to be driven out of business so the State can seize them. 

[roamer_1]

Using the letter of the law to make utilities pay for what is inevitably an act of God... What did they expect would happen? That liability is too great, and it is no wonder that they shut it off in high winds. Of course they shut it off.

NO above ground system can sustain that kind of wind without failures.
And that the counties would not cut down the brush and log the land is every bit as complicit in the cause.

[PeteS in CA]

Grandstanding a&&hole. I really despise this jerk.

PG&E followed PUC regs. Let the PUC give $100 from their budget to customers who experienced an outage. Moonbeam was dumb; Nuisance is maliciously dumb.

It should be obvious by now Cali wants PG&E, and other energy utilities, to be driven out of business so the State can seize them.

Sad but true. How any CAian who drives on CA highways and has to deal with the DMV could possibly think a state take-over would be less than disastrous is beyond my imagining. But I'm sure many/most CAians would favor it, sadly.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

What is the guy on oxygen who died when they cutoff the juice now gonna do with $100?

[IsailedawayfromFR]

It should be obvious by now Cali wants PG&E, and other energy utilities, to be driven out of business so the State can seize them.

already happening with a lowball offer

Https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion

[PeteS in CA]

already happening with a lowball offer

Https://www.kqed.org/news/11773007/san-francisco-offers-to-buy-pge-electric-grid-in-the-city-for-2-5-billion

That's actually something a little different. Cities or counties are permitted to create their own power utility district. They buy the grid in their jurisdiction and then administer/manage it. Sacramento has had SMUD, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, for decades. LA bought their grid more recently, I think from SoCal Edison, and have Los Angeles Light and Power. That's what SF is trying to do. I'm not sure power in SF was affected last week, but it is a power grab, literal and metaphoric. Given how well SF runs Muni and maintains its streets, that's not going to go well if they do that. Maybe they could call it the SF Crappy Power Authority,   .

[IsailedawayfromFR]

That's actually something a little different. Cities or counties are permitted to create their own power utility district. They buy the grid in their jurisdiction and then administer/manage it. Sacramento has had SMUD, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, for decades. LA bought their grid more recently, I think from SoCal Edison, and have Los Angeles Light and Power. That's what SF is trying to do. I'm not sure power in SF was affected last week, but it is a power grab, literal and metaphoric. Given how well SF runs Muni and maintains its streets, that's not going to go well if they do that. Maybe they could call it the SF Crappy Power Authority,   .

It seems more like extortion to me.

Anytime a public authority who wields the power to regulate(like approving lines, stations, etc within its area) an entity and then tries to essentially steal it at lowball prices, the system is subject to a lot of corruption possibilities.

And the stockholders are left holding the bag if it happens that assets are sold out from under them undervalued.

[GtHawk]

That's actually something a little different. Cities or counties are permitted to create their own power utility district. They buy the grid in their jurisdiction and then administer/manage it. Sacramento has had SMUD, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, for decades. LA bought their grid more recently, I think from SoCal Edison, and have Los Angeles Light and Power. That's what SF is trying to do. I'm not sure power in SF was affected last week, but it is a power grab, literal and metaphoric. Given how well SF runs Muni and maintains its streets, that's not going to go well if they do that. Maybe they could call it the SF Crappy Power Authority,   .

When I lived in Anaheim, CA I had the most stable electrical service I could ever recall. The city owned it's own generating facilities and well so that they were not totally dependent on outside source and that resulted in lower costs for residents. Ever since I moved and came back under SCE it's back to flickering lights and the occasional blackout but it could be worse. My mother lives in a retirement community where there are many seniors on medical devices and they have fairly regular 'maintenance' power outages last eight to ten hours.

[roamer_1]

When I lived in Anaheim, CA I had the most stable electrical service I could ever recall. The city owned it's own generating facilities and well so that they were not totally dependent on outside source and that resulted in lower costs for residents. Ever since I moved and came back under SCE it's back to flickering lights and the occasional blackout but it could be worse. My mother lives in a retirement community where there are many seniors on medical devices and they have fairly regular 'maintenance' power outages last eight to ten hours.

That 'beholden to' thing is a thing.
There is a dam up in Hungry Horse (the friendliest dam town there is) that used to be locally administrated. It can easily generate enough power for Flathead, Lake, and probably Lincoln counties... And DID, with surplus being sold to the grid.

Some time in the 80's or 90's the state sold that power in long term contracts to the grid, and our power costs doubled over night... And the Alcoa Aluminum plant folded up.

That ain't right.

[rangerrebew]

Grandstanding a&&hole. I really despise this jerk.

You're just prejudiced against gays.

[thackney]

It should be obvious by now Cali wants PG&E, and other energy utilities, to be driven out of business so the State can seize them.

“PG&E should be nationalized”: Berkeley students and residents denounce forced blackout in California
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/10/16/pgae-o16.html

[skeeter]

You're just prejudiced against gays.

As @PeteS in CA said, he's maliciously dumb & has done so much more damage in the short time he's been governor.

He's utterly incapable of an original thought & I cannot stand the sight of the feigned concern on his face.

[jpsb]

Atlas Shrugged

PG&E should just shutdown all it's non nuclear power plants and lock the doors and tell Cali to go hell