Why Jerry Brown bears considerable blame for PG&E’s deadly incompetence

By Chris Reed
03/02/2020
When Gov. Jerry Brown left office in January 2019, most of the reviews of his second eight-year stint as leader of the nation’s richest, most populous state were effusive. Citing his restoration of fiscal stability after the Capitol chaos seen in the last three years of the Schwarzenegger administration, Brown biographer Narda Zacchino declared he...

TAGS: "bullet train", California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Chris Reed, Jerry Brown, PG&E

Seven reasons to question a state utility takeover

By Mark Lisheron
02/26/2020
On Feb. 3, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, introduced a bill that would transfer to California taxpayers responsibility for the state’s largest and most troubled utility, Pacific Gas & Electric. The bill would give a new government agency, the California Consumer Energy and Conservation Financing Authority, the power to buy the assets and pay...

TAGS: Gavin Newsom, IBEW, John Moorlach, PG&E, Scott Wiener

Electricity and Ideology – Competing Priorities in California

By Edward Ring
10/22/2019
“If I wanted the power shut off for days by bloated, corrupt utilities enabled by bloated, corrupt one-party politicians,” quipped Harmeet Dhillon, a San Francisco attorney and prominent conservative political activist, “I would have stayed in India.” Dhillon’s observation pretty much sums up the frustration felt by millions of Californians last week. In Northern California, nearly 800,000 homes...

TAGS: climate change, Edward Ring, fire, Katy Grimes, PG&E