RE: PG&E will shut off power for nearly 800,000 customers starting Wednesday
10-10-2019, 11:24 PM
10-10-2019, 11:24 PM
So in California, three different private enterprises own the lines. Pacific Gas & Electric in the north, Southern California Edison in the south, and San Diego Gas & Electric near its namesake metro area. There are two major, but still smaller state owned ones -- L.A. Department of Water and Power and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Note that SMUD was only created in 1946, despite a public vote, after a 23 year court battle with PG&E.
In terms of selling power, those are the major players, but local "Community Choice Energy" coops have been formed fairly rapidly. After the industry pushed so hard for deregulation of energy providers, this meant that the government has become much more involved as an energy broker rather than in maintaining infrastructure. These would be significantly cheaper, if not for the taxes we have to pay to the former utility for not being customers any more, so they are merely cheaper and greener. The corporate utilities went long on fossil fuels, and that's not going to be a good payout, so everyone has to pay more.
There have been various talks about the state purchasing the lines and poles, though. Not really leading anywhere yet. SDG&E has indicated that if the other two sell out, it doesn't want to be the only private player left. PG&E wants to keep all its lines, but it is in bankruptcy. There's the Norwegian model of public-private ownership, but under our state constitution, California is not allowed to own shares in a company. It must be all or nothing, otherwise we are evil socialists.
The natural gas situation is also interesting. In the north, PG&E managed to explode a hundred homes with a gas line about a decade ago. In the south, So Cal Gas had the Aliso Canyon leak which ended up being the ungodly number of 1.5% of SoCal's total greenhouse gas emissions for the century, or 0.002% global CH₄ concentration. Oopsi-daisy. If these people were in charge of the Dutch water works we'd all be under water by now like Kevin Costner. Yes, all of us.
Oh, and somebody shot at a parked PG&E truck today. In summary, the utilities are not utile, laws prevent socialist infrastructure programs, and people choose government-run energy traders because they have more competitive rates.
In terms of selling power, those are the major players, but local "Community Choice Energy" coops have been formed fairly rapidly. After the industry pushed so hard for deregulation of energy providers, this meant that the government has become much more involved as an energy broker rather than in maintaining infrastructure. These would be significantly cheaper, if not for the taxes we have to pay to the former utility for not being customers any more, so they are merely cheaper and greener. The corporate utilities went long on fossil fuels, and that's not going to be a good payout, so everyone has to pay more.
There have been various talks about the state purchasing the lines and poles, though. Not really leading anywhere yet. SDG&E has indicated that if the other two sell out, it doesn't want to be the only private player left. PG&E wants to keep all its lines, but it is in bankruptcy. There's the Norwegian model of public-private ownership, but under our state constitution, California is not allowed to own shares in a company. It must be all or nothing, otherwise we are evil socialists.
The natural gas situation is also interesting. In the north, PG&E managed to explode a hundred homes with a gas line about a decade ago. In the south, So Cal Gas had the Aliso Canyon leak which ended up being the ungodly number of 1.5% of SoCal's total greenhouse gas emissions for the century, or 0.002% global CH₄ concentration. Oopsi-daisy. If these people were in charge of the Dutch water works we'd all be under water by now like Kevin Costner. Yes, all of us.
Oh, and somebody shot at a parked PG&E truck today. In summary, the utilities are not utile, laws prevent socialist infrastructure programs, and people choose government-run energy traders because they have more competitive rates.
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