Economy PG&E: Troubled Power Utility to Pay $125 Million in Fines and Penalties for the Kincade Fire of 2019

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This thread is about PG&E's dire situation in NorCal and the on-going fallout from their shoddy operation.

If you lack the basic knowledge required to participate on this particular subject matter, please read and learn rather than making contributions of no value.







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California governor says if PG&E can't "figure it out", the state could take it over
By Madeline Holcombe, CNN | November 02, 2019

191014175837-cnndinero-pge-101419-dinero-only-super-169.jpg

The state of California could take over Pacific Gas and Electric if the utility company does not pull itself out of bankruptcy by the middle of next year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a news conference Friday.

"PG&E as we know it may or may not be able to figure this out. If they cannot, we are not going to sit around and be passive," Newsom said. "If Pacific Gas and Electric is unable to secure its own fate and future ... then the state will prepare itself as backup for a scenario where we do that job for them."

The Northern California utility, which has come under fire recently for cutting power to thousands of people as part of its plan to prevent wildfires, filed for bankruptcy protection in January while facing billions of dollars in claims tied to deadly fires. Newsom said that his office aims to get the company out of bankruptcy by June 30, 2020 by first working on a plan with PG&E and other stakeholders.

"We want to bring everyone together, we want to broker a deal. It's what we do," he said.

But if an agreement isn't reached, he said, the state could step in.

"PG&E as we know it cannot persist and continue," the governor said, adding that the company has to be "completely transformed, culturally transformed, operationally transformed with a safety culture first and foremost as part of that fundamental transformation."

PG&E has been criticized recently for a practice known as Public Safety Preventative Shutoffs (PSPS), which intentionally cuts electricity to avoid causing fires during high winds and dry conditions. The utility giant cut power to thousands of customers on multiple dates in October as California faced strong winds that PG&E said posed wildfire threats. The utility's equipment has been blamed for starting deadly wildfires in the state in the past and the company has filed reports saying that its equipment may again be linked to at least three of the more than a dozen fires of the past week.
Newsom has been among the critics of the preemptive shutoffs.

"We cannot afford the kind of PSPSes we've experienced over the course of the last week. We had people out in some circumstances for one full week without power," Newsom said. "You gotta consider the life impacts of these power cutoffs."

PG&E gives customers credit on their bills

After an October 9 shutoff, Newsom demanded that PG&E "be held accountable" and provide rebates or credits after leaving thousands in the dark and some customers without power for days.

"Californians should not pay the price for decades of PG&E's greed and neglect," Newsom said in a news release. "PG&E's mismanagement of the power shutoffs experienced last week was unacceptable."

The city of San Jose said the shutoff had cost it at least half a million dollars.

On Tuesday, PG&E said in a news release that it will give a one-time credit of $100 to residential customers and $250 to business customers on their bills. The company said it is sending reimbursements for the specific event "due to the hardship caused by the website and communications issues," not because of political pressure.
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What do you think, NorCal folks?

When your twice-bankrupted regional electric company only managed to get less than 1/3 of its required tree trimming work done and now have to cut off power to entire cities whenever the wind is strong enough to knock over a chair because of the thousands of trees currently protruding onto power lines and transmission towers, may be it's not a bad idea to have a change of ownership, huh?

On the other hand, PG&E is also on the hook for billions in damages for the fires it caused in NorCal, I'm not sure if taxpayers are keen on taking on such a toxic asset and have their tax dollars paying for PG&E's mounting legal troubles, not to mention that your electricity bills would probably double when your utilities is run by the same fine politicians behind the multi-billion dollars High Speed Rail boondoggle.

If the state government does takes over PG&E, the billions of dollars required to hire more subcontractors to catch up on PG&E shoddy in-house maintenance work (that they have fell behind for YEARS) will likely be passed onto tax-payers as well.

Either way, prepare to clench your cheeks, 2020 gonna be a rough year up north.
 
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I've been to Northern California. Not a fan. Good luck guys.
 
Somebody should reboot Hollywood and silicon valley someplace else. Those trillions from those two little enclaves create delusion about reality and how things work for that state. Those two small places will keep that corpse somewhat animated and on life support for a while. This will keep some people oblivious as to what's killing it.
 
Obviously there's no way to be happy about an increased power bill, but I would definitely take that over power outages that last a whole week.
 
Somebody should reboot Hollywood and silicon valley someplace else. Those trillions from those two little enclaves create delusion about reality and how things work for that state. Those two small places will keep that corpse somewhat animated and on life support for a while. This will keep some people oblivious as to what's killing it.

You think it's just random chance those places are in California?
 
You think it's just random chance those places are in California?
No. It's because of the weather and former free and wild spirit of the place.
 
Most people's complaint is it's too "free and wild" now
 
It'll be worse if the state takes over. I'm a union worker and us and state employees are about the same when it comes to laziness and incompetence. We want to get paid the most amount of money doing the least amount of work possible. And we want pension after we put in our 20 years. Not just regular pensions, but A-class pensions. Only difference is the state will charge you more.
 
It'll be worse if the state takes over. I'm a union worker and us and state employees are about the same when it comes to laziness and incompetence. We want to get paid the most amount of money doing the least amount of work possible. And we want pension after we put in our 20 years. Not just regular pensions, but A-class pensions. Only difference is the state will charge you more.

The thing is, I don't think there's any other companies in their right mind would take over the toxic waste that is PG&E.

The chance for them to sort out their mess (not to mention the mounting legal bills) is slim to none, and I'm afraid the state would have no choice but to take over in order to keep the lights on in NorCal when PG&E inevitably fails.
 
They need to do controlled burns. They're putting so much blame on PG&E, but I doubt it's mostly their fault. I'm in the trades. I have my ear to the wall and I know what's up. Equipment fails all the time and what we want to do is out of the budget, so we put band aids on top of band aids.
 
Somebody should reboot Hollywood and silicon valley someplace else. Those trillions from those two little enclaves create delusion about reality and how things work for that state. Those two small places will keep that corpse somewhat animated and on life support for a while. This will keep some people oblivious as to what's killing it.

If the housing situation doesn't change I sincerely think that will happen. Richers will still have their playground and their slaves but most industry will be gone.
 
Whens the last time someone cast John Wayne, its a liberal conspiracy
 
They need to do controlled burns. They're putting so much blame on PG&E, but I doubt it's mostly their fault. I'm in the trades. I have my ear to the wall and I know what's up. Equipment fails all the time and what we want to do is out of the budget, so we put band aids on top of band aids.

California does controlled burns. It's just not feasible to do it over millions of acres or near people's homes.
 
I'd rather another company take it over than the state. I love California but they can't manage shit.
 
Someone was telling me that the state isn't allowing PG&E to go in and fix their shit in some areas to make them fail so the state can take over. Anyone heard anything about this?
 
It'll be worse if the state takes over. I'm a union worker and us and state employees are about the same when it comes to laziness and incompetence. We want to get paid the most amount of money doing the least amount of work possible. And we want pension after we put in our 20 years. Not just regular pensions, but A-class pensions. Only difference is the state will charge you more.

similar in a sense to cops. They hate us til they need us. When hurricane sandy hit in NY oh boy did they need us. Begging after a few days of outages.

although it is weird that we make the most money during other people’s misery but it is what it is. We did 16 hour days 7 days a week for months. I saw guys checks who were making much more then time and they taking home 15-20k a week. I was like 6-7k. Was great. Love Mother Nature

they also pay us for what we know not exactly how much we do. Utilities are serious biz
 
What do you think, NorCal folks?

When your bankrupted regional electric company only managed to get less than 1/3 of its required tree trimming work done and now have to cut off power to entire cities whenever the wind is strong enough to knock a chair over because of the thousands of trees currently protruding onto power lines and transmission towers, may be it's not a bad idea to have a change of ownership, huh?

On the other hand, PG&E is also on the hook for billions in damages for the fires it caused in NorCal, I'm not sure if taxpayers are keen on taking on such a toxic asset and have their tax dollars paying for PG&E's legal troubles, not to mention that your NorCal electricity bills would probably double when your utilities is run by the same fine politicians behind the multi-billion dollars High Speed Rail boondoggle.

If the state government does takes over PG&E, the millions required to hire more subcontractors to catch up on PG&E shoddy in-house maintenance work will likely be passed onto the customers as well.

Either way, prepare to clench your cheeks, 2020 gonna be a rough year for NorCal.

California governor says if PG&E can't "figure it out", the state could take it over

By Madeline Holcombe, CNN | November 02, 2019

191014175837-cnndinero-pge-101419-dinero-only-super-169.jpg


The state of California could take over Pacific Gas and Electric if the utility company does not pull itself out of bankruptcy by the middle of next year, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a news conference Friday.

"PG&E as we know it may or may not be able to figure this out. If they cannot, we are not going to sit around and be passive," Newsom said. "If Pacific Gas and Electric is unable to secure its own fate and future ... then the state will prepare itself as backup for a scenario where we do that job for them."

The Northern California utility, which has come under fire recently for cutting power to thousands of people as part of its plan to prevent wildfires, filed for bankruptcy protection in January while facing billions of dollars in claims tied to deadly fires. Newsom said that his office aims to get the company out of bankruptcy by June 30, 2020 by first working on a plan with PG&E and other stakeholders.

"We want to bring everyone together, we want to broker a deal. It's what we do," he said.

But if an agreement isn't reached, he said, the state could step in.

"PG&E as we know it cannot persist and continue," the governor said, adding that the company has to be "completely transformed, culturally transformed, operationally transformed with a safety culture first and foremost as part of that fundamental transformation."

PG&E has been criticized recently for a practice known as Public Safety Preventative Shutoffs (PSPS), which intentionally cuts electricity to avoid causing fires during high winds and dry conditions. The utility giant cut power to thousands of customers on multiple dates in October as California faced strong winds that PG&E said posed wildfire threats. The utility's equipment has been blamed for starting deadly wildfires in the state in the past and the company has filed reports saying that its equipment may again be linked to at least three of the more than a dozen fires of the past week.
Newsom has been among the critics of the preemptive shutoffs.

"We cannot afford the kind of PSPSes we've experienced over the course of the last week. We had people out in some circumstances for one full week without power," Newsom said. "You gotta consider the life impacts of these power cutoffs."

PG&E gives customers credit on their bills

After an October 9 shutoff, Newsom demanded that PG&E "be held accountable" and provide rebates or credits after leaving thousands in the dark and some customers without power for days.

"Californians should not pay the price for decades of PG&E's greed and neglect," Newsom said in a news release. "PG&E's mismanagement of the power shutoffs experienced last week was unacceptable."

The city of San Jose said the shutoff had cost it at least half a million dollars.

On Tuesday, PG&E said in a news release that it will give a one-time credit of $100 to residential customers and $250 to business customers on their bills. The company said it is sending reimbursements for the specific event "due to the hardship caused by the website and communications issues," not because of political pressure.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/11/02/us/pge-gov-newsom-state-back-up-plan/index.html

I'm assuming that PG&E haven't settled with the people who died from those fires yet either.
 
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