San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is rallying public support for the idea of a customer-owned PG&E, following this year’s devastating wildfires attributed to the utility’s equipment and public safety power shutoffs that have caused hardship for customers.
“My residents want power that’s delivered safely and reliably and that doesn’t cause fires and doesn’t get shut down without warning,” Liccardo said at a news conference Thursday, where he briefed reporters on his plan to possibly buy out PG&E and transfer the company’s ownership from its investors to its customers.
“Rates are going to increase no matter who owns this company,” Liccardo said. “I believe my residents want to know that if they’re going to pay more, they’re going to get safer and more reliable power and that those dollars are not simply going to the pockets of owners of hedge fund companies in New York.”
PG&E, whose largest stockholders are all based outside of California on the East Coast, filed for bankruptcy at the end of January this year.
Liccardo’s office also released a list of over 100 city council members and county supervisors from 58 cities and 10 counties in California who back a customer-owned PG&E transfer. The only politician from central Contra Costa County who supports the plan is the Vice-Mayor of Lafayette.
Spearheaded by Liccardo, legislators from the Bay Area, Central Coast and Central Valley all signed onto a list of seven “operating principles” they say should guide the state in transferring PG&E ownership to customers, including “geographic inclusion and equity, governing board responsibilities and selection process, labor and workforce, power supply procurement, public accountability, rate impact and credit quality, and safety and response.”
Another politically motivated asinine ideal, no thanks.
Say what you want about PG&E’s management. That doesn’t change the scariest words you’re likely to ever hear, “We’re from the government and we’re here to help.”
LOL – yeah – like – I’m here from your Private Insurance Health Care Company and I’d like to show you why we won’t cover that treatment that the doctors say could save your life…
Rob what treatment would that be?
I hope more of the C.C.C elected support the change, but publicly most will hide behind word salad responses on “needing more facts,” listening to constituents,” or “waiting for the current company litigation to be settled.”
Break up the company, clean out the C suites in SF, and focus on a plan to bury high risk lines. Offer incentives for more localized solar generation install, nat gas decommissioning, and working with cities like Concord to replace power poles installations while upgrading broadband service.
Similar to existing CA fire fighting tactics, hire on low risk prison workers to clear brush, create fire barriers, and install fire suppression equipment around high risk lines that can’t be buried. Provide sponsored job training for the prisoners and all others to qualify for job placement.
BFF Out!
Are you insane!!! You are a perfect example of an uneducated left wing nut job… tell me one thing… is there anything where the government gets it right? DMV?, healthcare?, post office? Medicare? IRS, Vets admin? Everything the governmentt touches turns to a bloated and wasteful cluster mess… and YOU want to nationalize an agency that has been in bed with California politicians for decades? You actually want them to get married? PG&E donated to Gavin Greusomes campaign… his sister non profit and Gavin’s wife’s organization… Is he really going to clean up PG&E? No way… once they have the control… dems will do little except push green wnergy failures and slowly remove the only reliable source of energy. Educate yourself get the facts because ur living in a pipe dream
Name one government organization that is run efficiently? This is a dumb idea.
No doubt PG&E needs to be run better but many of their problems are not their cause. Take the case of trees. Many of these trees were planted by homeowners or governments long after the electrical poles were installed. So now it becomes the problem of PG&E instead of the home owner or the government. Seems pretty unfair to me.
Gas lines are getting old but no one wants to pay more to get them replaced.
I admit I don’t know what PG&Es profits are or how much some may be getting rich on them but it would be better to fix their problems then to have some bureaucrat run the show.
Remember a couple of years ago when PG&E wanted to trim trees near Clayton Rd. and Ygnacio Valley Blvd? People went nuts because PG&E was going to touch their property/tree that was too close to the power lines. PG&E is in a no-win situation.
You might like to know that a huge number of those tree were planted by squirrels, especially the walnuts and oaks. PGE and the homeowners had nothing to do with it.
Gittyup I decided I am not going to say what I was going to say.
@Ricardoh Why not? I’ve been called everything under the sun here from ugly to stupid. Claycord’s insults are nothing new to me. My feelings don’t get hurt any more. I just figure you’re all ignorant clucks and you like it that way. I try to shed a ray of light where I can when the truth appears to be deemed irrelevant.
Giddyup – I don’t understand your point. What does It matter how the trees got there. They needed to be trimmed for safety and the people wouldn’t allow it.
This is how the state plans to take control of a company, by saying it’s “for the people.”
Communists gonna communist.
Woah
Politicians backing placing public in charge of a utility
Well here we go socialism communist rule is being established
Prepare to pay and increased tax and fee and fund as your pay check is about to get hammered
But socialism only works if everyone works
So the dems flooding the state with illegals and producing thousands of bums and drug addicts
By defunding public schools to throw money at illegals and their support and housing and healthcare
Socialism can not work
So this scam is going to indenture everyone into servitude
Which is exactly what the politicians want
Total control and no accountability
Since it’s being put out there …just like everything else
It’s going to happen and your children will be paying for your stipend of your debt for the rest of their lives
Wow you voters sure did throw this state in the trash
At least the rest of free America will see your idiocy and start to take back freedom from those politicians who wish to destroy us
This should be great tv and scandal
and anti American antics thrust straight to the headlines
For the world to laugh at
Wow you voted and put us here and now
Just wow
Can’t wait for Berkeley and Richmond and sf to be in the dark for 4-5 hours a night because the rainbows and criminals refuse to work off their power allotment
So funny as voters will approve it like lemmings and
Hmmm
So when a accident happens who will pay ?
YOU for everyone else who can’t
Have fun working and living in a super packed gov building so you can pay off your share of power debt of course under lock and key
Demifornia is the best example of oh wow I just got screwed
Might as well hit me again and oh yeah
Force my children into work camps to help pay my families portion
Wow
Just wow
California is well on its way to becoming Baja Venezuela
PG&E – which is Investor Owned and Publically Traded – has obviously been a disaster for the little people who need power and a lack of massive fires caused by PG&E – but it has been wonderful for their Execs who make millions and investors who love those dividends…
I don’t know how much they are making. If you know let us know. I would be interested in knowing that.
I would rather see PG&E cleaned up than a city or state government take over.
100 politicians already looking for ways to line there own pockets from it. If they would just hold PG&E accountable over the last 20 years these problems would not be happening. The PUC is just as guilty as PG&E in this whole mess. A government agency that was put there to oversee
“When everybody owns something, nobody owns it, and nobody has a direct interest in maintaining or improving its condition. That is why buildings in the Soviet Union—like public housing in the United States—look decrepit within a year or two of their construction…” – Milton Friedman
Customer-owned really means politician-owned, as they claim to represent us.
Best euphemism yet… customer owned means government owned…they play at words and folks gobble it up…should say the sheep gobble it up..lamds to the slaughter… people wake up…Has this worked out so well for health care and DMV… post office… do any of them break even? Has your healthcare bill gone down or even increased at an acceptable rate? Any customer who thinks this is a good idea… look south of the border… can you say nationalism? What private corporation will they go after next? How long before the California government controls every aspect of your life?
Cool idea .
We can get DMV to run PGandE .
What could go wrong ?? If you think the DMV, Covered California, and Homeless issues are bad, PG&E being run by the State would be a disaster
But of course they do.
They feel they are the only ones who know what’s good for us! They must save us from PG & E.
If this were to succeed the stock price would tank, and take some pensions with it.
Does anyone remember when the state of California took over the purchase of power utilities transmit to customers? Almost bankrupted California, PGE and customers. And those rolling blackouts? Is that really what any sane California resident wishes to experience again?
The rates we pay for power transmission need to be raised to bring those facilities up to 21st Century standards. Instead, we throw (even more) money into the High Speed Rail to Nowhere.
I not sure if public owned means the same as a nonprofit district. CCCSD, EBMUD, CCWD, and (ugg!) BART, (and I guess, City Councils), are districts that are governed by publicly elected Boards of Directors. Most seem to do a pretty good job. They are on every ballot, if you don’t like them vote them out! BART may be an exception but I think 80% of BART’s problems are caused by the ultra liberal City of San Francisco, and the mindsets of people who live in densely populated areas.
That’ll fix it. A new owner will make everything safe. Wonder if these are the same politicians that have been supporting PGE monopoly all these years.
Alameda’s electricity is supplied by a municipal utility. As I recall, it just sat there quietly doing its job year in and year out — no drama
https://www.alamedamp.com/DocumentCenter/View/482/Alameda-Municipal-Power-Fact-Sheet-PDF
Last time I checked, the city of Alameda doesn’t quite have the same terrain as Paradise or Santa Rosa or Napa. So of coarse they sit there quietly, because when one of their lines goes down it lands on concrete, not on the forest floor that hasn’t been maintained for the last 30 years.
You’re right. It is a lot of landfill and is prone to liquefaction in the event of an earthquake. They have their own issues to deal with in the event of disaster.
I agree… they politicians will adopt it as another cash cow to draw from for their personnel agenda’s. They have proven themselves already with failed government agencies like the PUC and the Bay Area Air Quality Management district…don’t buy into it folks unless you want to see significant increases on your utility bills…..
Fix the roads, then we’ll talk about owning a power company.
The PUC is bought and paid just like city councils and boards and governors
Contributions and favors runThis state
Welcome
You’ve been duped
Congratulations you’ve voted to screw yourselves and children for many years to come
So you could shame plastic straws and manhole covers oh and raise taxes 4 times over 4 years and add a gas tax and have bridge tolls over 6 dollars headed to 10 dollars
well done ….well done
CHINA WILL BE PROUD
Does this mean that I can go to the DMV to get help with setting up a new gas and electric account?
Will the Postal service be turning on and shutting off my power??
The biggest fear I have is with the state controlling your smart meter, and shutting down power on a hot day, to “save the planet”.
Of course, the rates will go way up.
Lets not overlook the fact that Liccardo’s city is one of the least affected areas by the safety shutoffs and/or fires. Obviously he has some other agenda, trying to acquire PG&E’s assets, than simply the best interests of its residents.
Liccardo is the same mayor who ordered the San Jose Police to stand down instead of protecting the safety of Trump supporters at the riot in that city in 2016.
PG&E. is already run by the government. State officials, and regulators run all the programs that come out of your bills.Like energy conservation programs,wind mill power and very expensive solar power, assistance programs to the poor, elderly, sick which is approaching almost 25 percent of PG&E customers. They must provide these subsidies by law. That is where all the money goes. Executive pay wouldn’t run PG&E for even 4 hours. All smokescreen to cover their failed policies. This is an attempt to confiscate private property like they do in countries like Venezuela which is now a basket case! Woe to California if they succeed. People and businesses small, medium, and large are leaving this state in droves. We may get what some wish for . Too bad.