"PG&E is a convicted felon," Mark Toney of TURN.org pointed out when ABC10 journalists interviewed him for their in-depth expose' on the utility company and it's corruption.
PG&E is a publicly traded investor-owned utility that enjoys a state-sanctioned monopoly that never expires, despite the fact of that felony conviction.
PG&E uses the money generated by its monopoly on power in many regions of California to influence our state politics, keep its profits flowing, and divert hundreds of millions from safety and operations money from customers to supply profit for stockholders and bonuses for executives,
Even in the face of a felony conviction and bankruptcy, they have been able to maintain their stranglehold on our state's power system.
But you don't have to take his word for it — watch the second part of the ABC 10 expose', 2nd video down. Or start here:
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🔴 Fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Tog0s8qnSc
🔴 Power
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxvDTrf5Hoo
🔴 Money
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UO23zwV3Ic
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PG&E spent $9 million on lobbying in 2018.
And after its conviction, PG&E donated another $4 million to political parties and candidates. That's $13 million that could have been spent on inspecting and improving the safety of electrical and gas lines across our state.
PG&E Sucked Up $4.6 Billion in Profits While Neglecting Basic Safety Practices, Killing Customers and Destroying Our Communities. And Now It Wants More.
What happens when 16 million people have no choice but to buy their power from a criminal corporation? That’s what happens.
We may not be able to put a corporation in prison, but we can, and should, deprive a corporate criminal of all privileges.
Just as prisoners lose political rights, PG&E should lose the privilege of using its profits to influence elections and purchase political good will.
And lose the privilege of taking profit until after reparation is fully made, and after establishing a track record of good performance in the public interest.
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Demand safe, affordable reliable electricity- at reasonable prices. We’re already paying top dollar for PG&E’s sub-standard, criminal operations. Tell the CPUC to STOP the rate hikes and START demanding better from PG&E. Higher rates won’t stop wildfires, accountability will.
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Of the 9 formal California Public Utilities Commission hearings scheduled at major locales, 7 are completed. The remaining two are:
- August 13, 2019, 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.: Public Services Building, 1st floor Conference Room, 2700 M St., BAKERSFIELD, CA 93301
- August 14, 2019, 1 p.m. and 6 p.m.: Fresno City Council Chambers, 2600 Fresno St., FRESNO, CA 93721
Don’t let PG&E shut us up OR shut us off.
Tell the CPUC to
STOP the rate hikes,
STOP the death and destruction,
HOLD PG&E ACCOUNTABLE.
SAN FRANCISCO — July 23, 2019
“PG&E’s pattern of safety failures and rule violations are reason enough to justify revocation of PG&E’s [monopoly certificate,]” the Public Advocates Office of the state public utilities commission wrote in a filing published Monday. “That the Commission’s traditional penalty tools have proven insufficient to change PG&E’s behavior demonstrates the entrenched culture of entitlement within the utility.”
Monday's filing elaborated ... that fining the utility company for its safety failures has done little more than make its customers pay a "subsidy of subpar performance," that the financial success of the company isn’t tied to its safety record, and that PG&E's regulators act as if there are "no alternatives to PG&E managing Northern California’s power grid."
“PG&E is neither indispensable nor irreplaceable,” the public advocates office continued. “In PG&E’s case, there is a history of wrongdoing, much of it egregious, spanning over 20 years, without any hint of a consequence to PG&E's tenure.”
The Public Advocates Office is an independent organization within the CPUC with a director appointed by the governor. The CPUC itself has openly questioned whether PG&E should lose its monopoly, but has not begun the process of stripping the company of its monopoly certificate.
The filing argues that the CPUC should set up a process that considers real alternatives to allowing the monopoly to continue, blasting PG&E’s “defensiveness” when confronted with “the sheer scope of PG&E’s failures, which caused over 100 fatalities and has cost tens of billions in direct financial damages to Californians....”
Read more here.
Material from TURN.org by permission.