4 ms·

PG&E is the poster child for regulatory capture. They're only in this mess because they've dragged their feet for so long on making critical upgrades and fixes.

jjoonathan 7y ago
The way I hear it they were required to make the critical upgrades and forbidden from charging high enough rates to pay for it. If this is true, then the people imposing those two constraints have only themselves to blame for the blackouts. Regulatory capture is a thing that happens and is a problem, but this seems to be a case of bad regulation, not regulatory capture.
- rodgerd 7y ago
  > If this is true, then the people imposing those two constraints have only themselves to blame for the blackouts. This is not true. PG&E have been returning phenominal divideds. They have chosen to prefer to dump their asset management budget into dividends.
  - jjoonathan 7y ago
    It really doesn't look like their dividends were atypical before they went to 0 on Dec 2017: https://ycharts.com/companies/PCG/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/PCG/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/SO/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/SO/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/DUK/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/DUK/dividend_yield
    - plorkyeran 7y ago
      Anything above 0% is atypical for a company in the financial position that PG&E claimed to be in. Paying dividends is something that profitable companies do.
- anigbrowl 7y ago
  Nonsense. Customers in a California are already paying higher rates for previous PG&E screwups.
- inferiorhuman 7y ago
  The way I hear it they were required to make the critical upgrades and forbidden from charging high enough rates to pay for it. If this is true, then the people imposing those two constraints have only themselves to blame for the blackouts. Bullshit. PG&E redirected around $100 million from their safety budget and spent it on corporate bonuses instead. While hopefully not part of their safety budget, PG&E spends about $400 million annually on stock buybacks. PG&E has plenty of money to prevent this bullshit but is more concerned with executive compensation. I mean, for fucks sake, Caltrans had to threaten to shut down the Hwy 1 and Hwy 24 tunnels before PG&E thought about bringing in generators (not even leaving enough time to install them before the power was cut). Regulatory capture is a thing that happens and is a problem, but this seems to be a case of bad regulation, not regulatory capture. Who lobbied for the regulations? Hint: PG&E.
eanzenberg 7y ago
Common refrain: let’s upgrade the systems. Ok! We charge users more. No, can’t do that, only the wealthy should pay for the changes. ... Nothing gets done
- Dylan16807 7y ago
  If they have enough money for dividends, then they have enough money to upgrade critical systems.

jjoonathan 7y ago

The way I hear it they were required to make the critical upgrades and forbidden from charging high enough rates to pay for it. If this is true, then the people imposing those two constraints have only themselves to blame for the blackouts. Regulatory capture is a thing that happens and is a problem, but this seems to be a case of bad regulation, not regulatory capture.

rodgerd 7y ago
> If this is true, then the people imposing those two constraints have only themselves to blame for the blackouts. This is not true. PG&E have been returning phenominal divideds. They have chosen to prefer to dump their asset management budget into dividends.
- jjoonathan 7y ago
  It really doesn't look like their dividends were atypical before they went to 0 on Dec 2017: https://ycharts.com/companies/PCG/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/PCG/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/SO/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/SO/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/DUK/dividend_yield https://ycharts.com/companies/DUK/dividend_yield
  - plorkyeran 7y ago
    Anything above 0% is atypical for a company in the financial position that PG&E claimed to be in. Paying dividends is something that profitable companies do.
anigbrowl 7y ago
Nonsense. Customers in a California are already paying higher rates for previous PG&E screwups.
inferiorhuman 7y ago
The way I hear it they were required to make the critical upgrades and forbidden from charging high enough rates to pay for it. If this is true, then the people imposing those two constraints have only themselves to blame for the blackouts. Bullshit. PG&E redirected around $100 million from their safety budget and spent it on corporate bonuses instead. While hopefully not part of their safety budget, PG&E spends about $400 million annually on stock buybacks. PG&E has plenty of money to prevent this bullshit but is more concerned with executive compensation. I mean, for fucks sake, Caltrans had to threaten to shut down the Hwy 1 and Hwy 24 tunnels before PG&E thought about bringing in generators (not even leaving enough time to install them before the power was cut). Regulatory capture is a thing that happens and is a problem, but this seems to be a case of bad regulation, not regulatory capture. Who lobbied for the regulations? Hint: PG&E.

eanzenberg 7y ago

Common refrain: let’s upgrade the systems. Ok! We charge users more. No, can’t do that, only the wealthy should pay for the changes. ... Nothing gets done

Dylan16807 7y ago
If they have enough money for dividends, then they have enough money to upgrade critical systems.