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Indeed. That was the story. The reality is after all these rate hikes PG&E, which so desperately complained about their future being in jeopardy, forcing worker

Indeed. That was the story. The reality is after all these rate hikes PG&E, which so desperately complained about their future being in jeopardy, forcing worker concessions, and undergoing a 58 billion dollar wildfire fueled restructuring, paid their CEO more than 40 million dollars and cleared more than 25 percent pure profit last quarter. Oh, and this most recent rate hike was justified to bury cables. All while becoming the most expensive provider in California. And did I mention that, after announcing a massive across the board rate hike, they decided to start the very expensive program of giving dividends to stock holders. But wait! THEN they announced that instead of paying for what you use, you’re going to pay for how much money you earn and that you would now need to report income to them like they are the Government. A private corporation? Every rate payer pays on household incomes?!? What? https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2022/10/ratepayers-struggle-pay-pge-energy-bills-ceo-rakes-over-190#:~:text=Most%20of%20Poppe's%20compensation%20came,stark%20example%20of%20rewarding%20failure https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2022/10/ratep.... https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/pg-e-corp-s-poppe-was-highest-paid-us-utility-ceo-in-2021-71538853 https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights... https://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/national-investigations/pge-rate-hike-california/3302833/ https://www.nbclosangeles.com/investigations/national-invest... We’re rewarding failure and the utility is killing people.

nick7376182 3y ago
Maybe a residential power generation owners union (association?) could coalesce enough collective action power. Residential producers go on strike by disabling their systems on a coordinated random Saturday each month causing spikes in power cost and headaches for PG&E until the solar rate structure is negotiated with the union on fair terms.
- happytiger 3y ago
  That’s pretty smart. Might change the dynamic somewhat if they knew there was substantive resistance. But at the end of the day it’s pretty hard to beat regulatory capture unless you start threatening the politicians.
- frumper 3y ago
  Local areas can create public districts for power, and there are many throughout California. They generally work quite well, though the creation of new ones can be time consuming to get control over existing PG&E areas.
bequanna 3y ago
Yeesh… assuming that is all accurate that is quite a raw deal for customers. I don’t know much about the regulatory environment in CA but I thought there was either deregulation which allowed you to pick your provider or strong monopoly regulation which restricted utility margin. Is CA neither of those?

nick7376182 3y ago

Maybe a residential power generation owners union (association?) could coalesce enough collective action power. Residential producers go on strike by disabling their systems on a coordinated random Saturday each month causing spikes in power cost and headaches for PG&E until the solar rate structure is negotiated with the union on fair terms.

happytiger 3y ago
That’s pretty smart. Might change the dynamic somewhat if they knew there was substantive resistance. But at the end of the day it’s pretty hard to beat regulatory capture unless you start threatening the politicians.
frumper 3y ago
Local areas can create public districts for power, and there are many throughout California. They generally work quite well, though the creation of new ones can be time consuming to get control over existing PG&E areas.

bequanna 3y ago

Yeesh… assuming that is all accurate that is quite a raw deal for customers. I don’t know much about the regulatory environment in CA but I thought there was either deregulation which allowed you to pick your provider or strong monopoly regulation which restricted utility margin. Is CA neither of those?